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COFVRIGHT DEPOSrT. 











JULY AND AUGUST 

o/1914 



Fifty copies only have been printed. 
This is No. 



Digitized by the Internet Archive 
in 2011 with funding from 
The Library of Congress 



http://www.archive.org/details/julyaugustof191400will 



JULY AND AUGUST 

of 1914 



By Mary Raymond Williams 



CLEVELAND 

1915 



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COPYRIGHT 1915 BY 
MARY RAYMOND WILLIAMS 



PRESS OF 

THE BROOKS COMPANY 

CLEVELAN D 



JAN 3 I9i6 

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Foreword 

It is many months after our return from Europe that 
we decide to print this book. The diary, for such it is, was 
merely putting down day by day our impressions of places 
and events and seems of very small importance for printing. 

The summer of the great war, however, was an epoch- 
making period. We were witnesses near at hand of its on- 
coming and it is our desire to leave for our children and a 
few dear friends the picture of those months as they appeared 
to us. 

It should be remembered that references to the war are 
as they were made at the time, merely jottings from news- 
paper accounts as they came to us then. Mistakes in dates 
are largely due to the strict censorship, which allowed news 
of many happenings to come through only after long inter- 
vals from the actual occurrence. In the hurry of newspaper 
make-up many names were undoubtedly misspelled. We 
took them down as they were, dates and names, and as they 
were we let them stand here. 

E. M. W. 



Friday, July 3rd. 

IT WAS noon when the Imperator turned her passengers 
for Cherbourg over to the French tender, and to the tune 
of the Marseillaise, with French flags flying, we steamed 
away to Cherbourg. The Custom house was filled with 
tourists and trunks, foreign language and great activity. In 
my anxiety to pass safely through its doors, I hurriedly an- 
nounced to the inspector that I had only "les habitants'* in 
my trunk, meaning " ha billernent" ; the result was he looked 
at me suspiciously and insisted on opening the trunk in- 
stead of simply giving its lid the chalk mark which dozens 
of other trunks had received. 

Our luncheon we took at the Casino, and had our first 
sample of fromage a la crime, the most delicious cheese I 
have ever tasted. 

At three-thirty we left Cherbourg in a Hotchkiss landau, 
a most comfortable motor, with Frederic Charlet for our 
chauffeur. He proved a careful driver and considerate al- 
ways of our comfort, but I soon learned that the French rate 
of speeding is far ahead of anything I ever dreamed of. 
Forty-five miles was nothing to Charlet. It seemed to me 
we were driving sixty at times until, to my relief, I heard 
Ed telling him that if he as much as touched a chicken's 
wing it would be all up with him as far as Mrs. Williams 
was concerned, and he could take his car back to Paris. 

We soon had our first glimpse of thatched houses 
and the quaintest of Normandy villages, roses climbed over 
the fronts and roofs of even the poorest dwellings, while the 
windows were filled with geraniums in tin cans, pots and 
boxes. The hedges along the roads were often on top of 



rampart-like grass walls, some of the hedges so high we 
could not see over them. Once or twice we saw fragments 
of walls that had been part of the fortifications protecting 
farms in feudal days. 

We passed through Valognes where the cheese that had 
formed so delightful a part of our lunch was made, through 
Lessay to Coutances, a most ancient town, supposed to have 
been fortified by Constantius Chlorus in the Third Cen- 
tury. We went into its fine Gothic cathedral, the west 
towers of which show one of the earliest examples of fully 
developed spire. At the end of the nave there are beautiful 
rose windows. 

We also looked into the church of St. Nicholas, Nor- 
man and simple with finely carved choir stalls dating back 
to the year 1620. 

Granville, at the mouth of the Bosq, was our next stop. 
The town was founded in the Twelfth Century and is most 
picturesquely situated; its upper part is perched upon a 
large, steep rock extending into the sea and surrounded by 
old fortifications. It is a popular summer resort and from 
a very modern Casino and hotel one gets a good view of 
the sea shore. The lower part of the town is full of narrow 
streets and small shops. We passed its Gothic Cathedral 
of the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries and went on our 
way to Avranches, arriving there at eight o'clock after a 
run of one hundred and fifty miles in four and one-half 
hours. 

We drove into the curious old court-yard of the Hotel 
de France et de Londres, our first experience in a Normandy 
Inn, where not a word of English was spoken. All of us, 




GRANVILLE 



the proprietor included, ate at one table, the Frenchmen 
with napkins tucked in their necks. 

After dinner we took a walk through the little town, 
the quaintest I have ever seen. We came across another 
Gothic Notre Dame which is modern, of the Seventeenth 
Century. Near by we walked through the Jardin des Plantes, 
full of roses in fine bloom. From the edge of this garden, 
just before dark, we had a glorious view across the sands of 
Mont St. Michel, grand in its isolation upon the rock in the 
middle of the bay. 

We went to bed by candles, the only light supplied by 
our host, but the full moon and outlook upon the enclosed 
garden more than made up for lack of electricity. 



Saturday, July 4th. 

We had our dejeuner in the garden close to walls cov- 
ered with climbing pear trees. The fragrance from the 
roses all about us was delicious although the coffee was not. 
We should have been so charmed with the loveliness of the 
garden that breakfast was a secondary thought, but Ed had 
an American appetite, so to the amusement of our waiter, 
we asked for ham and eggs in any form we could have them. 

At nine-thirty in our Hotchkiss we started for Mont 
St. Michel, arriving almost within an hour. It was a mar- 
velous sight, that rocky pinnacle, an island when the tide 
was in, and when it was out most dangerous to approach 
on account of the moving quick-sands. The rock rises one 
hundred and sixty feet above the bay, and on the highest 
spot is the church. 

We started our long climb by going up the steps of the 
ramparts which are at the highest point of the village, and 
on each side of us, beside the many cafes belonging to the 
Hotel Poulard were little shops having nothing whatever 
to do with the Abbey, but simply a means of money-making 
for the peasants of Normandy. A large crowd of French 
tourists had already collected and climbed the stairway of 
the Grand Degre, so we followed them headed by a guide, 
also French. 

From the great stairway we went into the Chatelet, the 
donjon of the Fifteenth Century, flanked by two projecting 
turrets; then up more stairs to the Saut Gaultier, so-called 
from a prisoner who endeavored to escape in the Sixteenth 
Century and perished in the attempt. The adjoining church 
begun in 1020 in the Norman style has undergone many 




AVRANCHES— Panorama vers la Route de Granville 




COUTANCES— Le Marche au Bois 



changes. To Hildabert II is due the plan of building a 
platform on the summit of the rocky cone upon which the 
church stands, so that it could be level with the Abbey build- 
ings. The Gothic choir is fine. From the outer gallery 
we had a view of the central tower which was rebuilt with 
a Gothic spire and has a bronze statue of St. Michel at a 
height of five hundred and ten feet above the bay. 

From the church, we went into the cloisters, to me the 
most beautiful part of the entire Abbey. There are double 
arcades with columns of carved stone showing different de- 
signs of capitals, and all exquisitely done. 

Then came in order the Refectory, a splendid room, 
the Promenoir of the Twelfth Century and the Crypt of 
the Eleventh. With candles we were allowed to walk a 
few steps into the dungeons and found a little way quite far 
enough, so filled were these passages with the blackness of 
night. It was somewhere in one of these dungeons that the 
iron cage was placed by Louis XV in which he imprisoned 
Dubourg, a pamphleteer. The invention of the cage was 
the horrible conception of Cardinal Balue, suggested to 
Louis XL When Count Artois made his pilgrimage to the 
Mount in 1777, he demanded its destruction, which was 
accomplished later by King Louis Philippe. There was a 
huge wheel in the Crypt used for hoisting provisions to the 
kitchen when the Abbey was a prison. The Chapels of St. 
Martin and St. Stephen of the Eleventh Century were inter- 
esting and the Crypt of the Big Pillars is a wonder with its 
huge nineteen columns. The Salle des Chevaliers, too, is 
a splendid hall with pointed vaulting and fire places, inside 
of which we stood and looked straight up the chimneys to 
the sky above. The Almonry and the cellar below are called 
"The Montgomeries" in memory of the unsuccessful attack 



in 1591 of Montgomery, leader of the Huguenots, under 
Henry of Navarre. Montgomery's failure was due to the 
treachery of Goupigny, supposedly his friend. 

The little chapel of St. Aubert was built in memory of 
the first founder of the Mont St. Michel. Mysterious visions 
appeared to Aubert, the Bishop of Avranches, in the form 
of the Archangel Michel, urging him to build an oratory 
and do away with the Paganism then practiced on the Mont. 
The Bishop, finally being influenced by these dreams, cut 
a small chapel in the side of the rock in the year 708, calling 
it the chapel of St. Michel. The Bishop was supposed to 
have performed miracles. He removed all signs of Pagan- 
ism and after his death, a year later, his memorial chapel 
was erected. 

It was about this time that the forests of Scissy were sub- 
merged by a high spring tide and a small portion of the 
Scissy woods only remains to tell the tale. The monks of 
the Abbey, who were of the Benedictine order, found pro- 
tection in Rollo, duke of Normandy and his successors. In 
1066 the order sent six ships to assist William in his English 
conquest. The Abbey was constantly enriched by the gifts 
of the Pilgrims and the Kings who came to do penance for 
their crimes. In the Twelfth Century, it was known as the 
City of Books and noted as a centre of learning. In 1203 
Philip Augustus burned the monastery then in possession 
of the English, but rebuilt it when he became master of Nor- 
mandy. 

This Mont St. Michel was the only Norman fortress 
that successfully defied Henry V of England. St. Louis 
visited it in 1254 and Louis XI founded the knightly order 
of St. Michel. Abuses then began and the Benedictines and 







MONT ST. MICHEL 



their order were replaced by that of St. Maur which re- 
mained until after the Revolution. The monastery then be- 
came state property and was used as a prison until 1863. 
Restorations are now under way at the expense of the state 
which is making most praiseworthy efforts to keep the towns- 
people from using the near-by land for money-making pur- 
poses, thus spoiling the picturesqueness and taking away the 
charm of its historical interest. 

Down from the Mont once more, we lunched at one of 
the Poulard cafes and had a very nice omelet. En route to 
our automobile, we found a party of young American boys 
who were wishing they could find a few fire crackers and 
show St. Michel a real Fourth of July Celebration. 

We left St. Michel at twelve-forty, passing through 
Avranches again, then the quaint Norman towns of Ville- 
dieu and Percy, arriving at St. Lo two hours later. Here 
the Saturday market looked so interesting we stopped and 
walked about among the stalls. The Normandy women, 
young and old, dress mostly in plain black, the older ones 
wearing stiff white caps. They drive to market in two- 
wheeled carts ; we saw dozens of them on the road today and 
it was not unusual to see the men taking their ease in the 
cart while the women walked beside the horse. The Nor- 
mandy horses are large, fine looking animals. The market 
was filled with every useful variety of dry goods, vegetables, 
herbs and delicious fruits. 

St. Lo is on the banks of the Vire, its name being de- 
rived from St. Laudus, an early Bishop. Charlemagne for- 
tified the town and it was captured by the Normans and 
English several times. We saw the Notre Dame with two 
handsome towers of the fourteenth-sixteenth centuries. 



By four o'clock we had reached Bayeux. We went 
directly to the Museum to see the much-heard-of works of 
Mathilde of Flanders, wife of William the Conqueror and 
her court ladies, and what an undertaking it must have been ! 
The tapestry done on linen is two hundred and thirty feet 
long and represents important episodes in the Conquest of 
England, the first scene being the dispatching of Harold 
by Edward the Confessor to tell Count William he would 
some day be King of England, and the final picture show- 
ing the death of Harold and the flight of the English. Above 
and below the subjects is a border of scenes from Aesop's 
Fables. 

We drove next to the Bayeux Notre Dame, a very good 
looking Gothic Cathedral of the twelfth-fifteenth centuries, 
with two Romanesque towers and graceful turrets, striking 
examples of early Gothic. 

From Bayeux it was only an hour and a half to Caen, 
the city of all cities most filled with the spirit of William the 
Conqueror and his wife. There we saw the finest church 
we have yet seen, Saint Pierre — Gothic. This church has 
no transepts. 

The Apse with its five Chapels and turret is a master- 
piece of Sohier, a native of Caen. These chapels are of the 
Renaissance period, very elaborately decorated, but the gen- 
eral impression of the interior is one of great harmony. The 
capitals of the huge pillars of the nave are carved with gro- 
tesque animals. The carvings on the pulpit and beautiful 
high altar are splendidly done. The flying buttresses, spire 
and towers are all beautiful. 

We saw from the outside only, the Abbaye-aux-Hommes 



10 




DIVES-SUR-MER— Hostellerie Guillaume-le-Conquerant 



founded by William as an expiation of the sin of marrying 
his cousin Mathilde. It was hard to get a good view of this 
church, it is so hemmed in by other buildings, but from what 
we could see, it was dignified and very simple. 

Mathilde built an abbey for the same cause and we 
found hers smaller than the Conqueror's; a good example 
of the Norman type, with two square towers and another 
pointed one from its transept. 

Through the sleepy old-looking town we passed by the 
barracks which was formerly the Castle of Caen begun by 
William and finished by Henry I. 

We reached Dives as the sun was setting and made our 
stop at the old Inn of William the Conqueror. In its pic- 
turesque courtyard we had tea, the largest raspberries I have 
ever seen and rich Normandy cream. There was the love- 
liest assortment of flowers all about us, an enormous laven- 
dar plant in the centre and heliotrope and begonias in pro- 
fusion. No wonder Hopkinson Smith was impelled to 
record the charm of this inn both in picture and in story. 
Our cordial hostess told us that Dumas used to occupy one 
of her rooms and it is supposed to be from Dives-sur-Mer 
that William set sail for England on his conquest of 1066. 

Into fashionable and modern Deauville we drove in 
time for a late dinner. Deauville is filled with a type of 
summer houses which, though common along the French 
coast, were not architecturally pleasing to us. 

The Normandy hotel where we stopped was a new one, 
attractively built on the seashore, and our rooms faced the 
gardens, tennis courts and bathing beach. There is a very 



11 



pretty court full of heliotrope, roses and small apple trees, 
and from every bedroom window is a balcony filled with 
red and pink geraniums. 

Dinner was the best meal we have had since leaving the 
Imperator, and in the evening we visited with a friend who 
told us something of the racing season of these parts, which 
begins the middle of the month. Deauville and Trouville 
are then at the height of their season; rooms are engaged 
at the hotels months beforehand and the prices are fabulous. 
During the season six hundred automobile parties will come 
to one hotel, and if the guest is caught unawares, not having 
previously engaged his room, he is apt to find his bill twenty- 
five dollars a day. The houses which we saw boarded up 
this afternoon are then opened and overflowing with people, 
but there is much doubt this summer as to the usual thou- 
sands of visitors, for the French people have been quite af- 
fected by our financial depression and money is not flowing 
as freely with them as usual. 



12 



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Sunday, July 5th. 

At ten-thirty we were off, passing first through Trou- 
ville, the twin of Deauville, with exactly the same style of 
villas, casinos, golf and polo and the famous race course. 

The shore along which we traveled through beautiful 
woods made me think very much of our Massachusetts north 
shore. We had miles of trees all so green they looked as 
though they had never known a dry season. 

From the woods of the summer resorts, we came upon 
a decidedly different part of the shore, Honfleur, the quaint- 
est little fishing town, apparently doing a profitable business 
in fish. The people quite corresponded with the place, for 
here we saw and heard wooden shoes clattering over the 
cobblestones. All the markets and little shops seem to be 
open today, and it is evidently only the larger stores which 
close on Sunday. 

Another picturesque village was Pont-Audemer, hardly 
an hour's ride from Honfleur. It is an industrial village on 
the river Rille and it, too, is most picturesquely situated. 

I peeked inside its church of Saint Ouen, of the Elev- 
enth Century, and a beauty, the widows of the Renaissance 
period are exquisite. Services were going on so I did not 
walk about. 

Our next stop was a short one in which we saw the old 
Norman ruins of St. George de Boscherville, way up in the 
hillside, belonging at present to a rich French Count — 
Larribeussiere. 

Our descent from this height was into Rouen where 
we arrived at luncheon time and had our first view of one 

13 



of the grandest Gothic buildings of Normandy, though curi- 
ously unsymmetrical in plan, the Great Cathedral 1202- 
1220. We went off at a distance to have the full effect of this 
facade of the sixteenth century; it is tremendously decorated 
in the most florid style, but the towers — two of unequal 
height, are fine, especially the higher one, the Tour de 
Beurre. It derives its name from the fact that it is supposed 
to have been built with money obtained from the sale of 
butter indulgences during Lent. The Tour St. Romain 
dates from the twelfth century and is the oldest part of the 
building. Over the transept the tower has an iron spire 
which would better have been left off. On the north side 
of the Cathedral we found a court where the book stalls had 
once been, and on this side the tympanum contains carvings 
of the Resurrection, Last Judgment and queer, fantastic sub- 
jects besides. 

Outside the court, apparently from the side of the 
church itself, a woman was drawing water. Altogether it 
was the most incongruous side of a Cathedral I have ever 
seen. 

We entered the church from the court, and found a 
French party preparing to follow a French guide, so we 
followed too, and I saw at last the beautifully carved wooden 
stairway I have known so well in pictures. The guide took 
us into the Lady Chapel where are the tombs of the sixteenth 
century. The tomb of Louis de Breze, erected by his widow, 
Diane de Poitiers, showed us the first of Jean Goujon's work 
we had seen; Jean Cousin, also, is supposed to have done 
part of it. The tomb of the Cardinals d' Amboise is most 
imposing. It is by Leroux. There are the kneeling figures 
of the Cardinals and behind them has reliefs of St. George 
and the Dragon, Christ, the Virgin and Six Saints, six statues 

14 



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of the Virtues below, and above, Prophets and Apostles. 
The whole is a real masterpiece of French Romanesque. 

On one side of the nave is the tomb of Rollo of Nor- 
mandy and opposite, his son William of the Longsword. 
There is a very ancient figure of Richard Coeur de Lion, 
beneath which is buried his heart. The most remarkable 
sight in this Cathedral, supposed to be unparalleled in Eng- 
land, is the five divisions of the nave. Pillars and arches 
above the first pillars and arches, then a gallery upon a gal- 
lery, and higher still the great windows. 

It was two o'clock when we went into the Hotel d' 
Angleterre, not at all attractive looking outwardly, but in- 
side so good that we had a delicious luncheon. 

Afterward we found, by walking up to the old market 
square, a tablet marking the spot where Jean d'Arc was 
burned, so disgraceful to the English. I felt not in the least 
enlightened for having seen it. In the Place de la Pucelle 
is a statue of the Maid of Orleans over a fountain. We 
passed by another interesting looking church, Saint Ouen, 
and looked up St. Maclou, very florid Gothic, in order to 
see the carved wooden doors done by Jean Goujon. The 
carving is beautiful and well worth seeing. 

At three-thirty we left this interesting town and an hour 
later stopped for tea at Vernon. 

At Mantes we stopped a moment to see the Notre Dame 
Cathedral, another of Gothic architecture dating from the 
end of the twelfth century, with fine rose windows. It was 
at Mantes that William the Conqueror fell from his horse 
after the capture of the city, and later died from his injuries. 



15 



St. Germain at six o'clock was beautiful with its attrac- 
tive villas and looked so refreshed after the rain we had had 
since leaving Rouen. From a hill, as we were leaving this 
suburb of Paris, we caught our first view of this beautiful 
city, the Eiffel Tower looming high above every other build- 
ing. We entered by the Port Lazare and came into the 
Bois, looking its greenest and best. All of Paris was out, 
as though there had been no rain and the fountains were 
going full force as if they never stopped for showers. We 
came to the Hotel Meurice which we find very attractive 
and comfortable. After dinner we walked through the 
Places Vendome and de l'Opera and went as far as the 
Madeleine. 



16 



Monday, July 6th. 

After visiting Morgan Harjes, the Banker's, we started 
through the Tuileries gardens and the court of the Louvre. 
We looked at the Louvre from all points, first the court with 
its statues of Gambetta and Lafayette and others, and as Ed 
is extraordinarily fond of statuary we made the most of all 
those works of art. 

It was interesting to see the wings of the Louvre from 
the distance and to read, for we carried our Baedeker in 
hand, of the history of their building, they represent the 
works of so many kings and architects. 

Our next view was from the Quai de Louvre and gave 
us a good chance to see the work of Catherine de Medici; 
her addition was built in 1556, is of early Renaissance and 
very fine. We also saw the part attributed to Henry IV and 
the passage connecting two sections of the building by Na- 
poleon III. 

We found the Quai most interesting, lined with book 
stalls of the oldest, cheapest looking paper-covered books 
selling for a few centimes. There were men fishing in the 
river but apparently catching nothing, and women busy with 
the family wash. 

We walked to Notre Dame, stopped to look at the 
bronze Charlemagne, whose horse is led by Roland, and 
then went into the Cathedral. It was very dark but we could 
appreciate, even without the light, the beautiful Romanesque 
vaulting and could dimly see the graceful lines of the round 
pillars and galleries above. While I sat down for a few mo- 
ments by the statue of Notre Dame, at the entrance of the 



17 



Choir, I watched many people kneel before her and bow 
their heads in prayer. Jean d' Arc's image was near by with 
a box for coins attached, and a few men and women came 
to the aid of the Jean d'Arc Society by adding their mite 
to her box. 

Outside, we had a good view of the fine old fagade, the 
work of which was finished in 1240. It is the oldest of its 
kind, This remarkable front has three stories aside from 
its towers. The doors are beautifully wrought in iron; in 
the gallery above are niches containing statues of twenty- 
eight kings of Israel and Judah. In the center, above the 
gallery, is the Virgin and to the right and left are Adam and 
Eve. In the Tympanum is Christ in Glory with an angel 
holding the nails and this is a beautiful piece of the thirteenth 
century sculpture. On the central portal is the Last Judg- 
ment. To Viollet le Due is due the renovation of much of 
this great work. 



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SAINT-LO— Eglise Notre-Dame 



Tuesday, July 7th. 

Having forgotten to lunch yesterday in our enthusiasm 
over sight-seeing, we made a special point of it today and 
were guests of a friend at the Hermitage in the Bois. The 
garden looked so attractive that in spite of the rain we de- 
cided on luncheon among the trees ; a little thatched roof tea 
house made this quite feasible and our luncheon was de- 
licious. 

Afterward we watched the speckled trout of all sizes 
swimming about in a rocky pool and meanwhile the sun 
came out again. 

Our host spent two hours in the Louvre with us and as 
he is quite at home in its many galleries, we followed him as 
a valuable guide. I had been reading Caffin on French 
painting so was glad to find the works of Jean Fouquet, the 
dominant figure of a transition period. He was painter in 
ordinary to Charles VII and Louis XI and his portrait of 
Charles is tremendously interesting; in his sad, ill-looking 
face, the mixture of good and bad is so clearly portrayed. 

Also in this room of the Primatifs Francais is the "Chan- 
cellor" under Charles XII showing a character decidedly 
forceful, such as would be expected of the Chancellor of 
France. The "Pieta," done by the School of Avignon, shows 
the figure of Christ, quite rigid, held by the Virgin Mother, 
with St. John removing his crown of thorns, the Magdalene 
standing on one side with bowed head and the priest kneel- 
ing reverently near the head of the Saviour; the whole re- 
markably intense in its dignity and simplicity. 

We came out upon the stairway where the glorious 



19 



Winged Victory of Samothrace stands and turned into the 
Flemish School, the pride of our host, who is of Dutch de- 
scent. We walked through the Rubens Hall of twenty-one 
scenes from the life of Marie de Medici, while he called our 
attention to the real strokes of the master and the work which 
belongs to his atelier. He felt sure that some of the Franz 
Hals are not real and that the Holbeins, father and son, are 
mixed. We all agreed that the "Lecture of the Bible" by 
Rembrant is splendid, the woman is supposedly the Mother 
of the painter. "Christ at Emmaus," the "Angel and To- 
bias," and especially the "Bathsheba" are fine, also "Venus 
et Amour," Van Dyck's "Charles I" and Cornelius Van 
Voorst's "In Trafalgar Square." The side of one of the 
walls was covered with Snyder's animals of all sorts, there 
were gross looking Jordaens and many works of Rubens' 
pupils, Bol, Govaert and Flincke. 

In the English room we found Constable's "Le Cot- 
tage," and portraits by Reynolds, Gainsborough and Rae- 
burn. In the Spanish room was the beautiful "Immaculate 
Conception," the "Jeune Mendicant" and the "Holy Fam- 
ily" by Murillo, Velasquez' "Phillip IV of Spain" and 
Goya's "Young Spanish Woman," which interested us mostly. 

The huge "Marriage at Cana" by Paul Veronese we 
found in the Salon Carre. Eleanor of Austria is being 
married to Guglielmo Gonzago and Francis I, the Sultan, 
Mary of England, Charles V and Victoria Colonna are all 
there. The musicians are Veronese, Titian and other Vene- 
tian painters. Raphael's "St. Michael" is near by, Titian's 
beautiful "Entombment of Christ," also his Francis I. Da 
Vinci's "Mona Lisa," quite at home again after her trip to 
Italy, drew an admiring crowd about her and a special guide 
enlarged upon her "subtle smile" and other attractions. 



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AVRANCHES— Maison du XVI Siecle 



We looked into the Salle des Primatifs Italiens and it 
was good to see the Fra Angelicas, Filippo Lippis, a whole 
series of St. Francis by Giotto, Ghirlandaio, Verrocchio, 
Perugino and the Florentines of the fourteenth-fifteenth cen- 
turies. Then into the Statuary Hall to give Ed a good look 
at the Venus de Milo, ending the afternoon with tea at the 
Pre Catalan, another of the attractive restaurants in the Bois. 

At midnight we, with a party of friends, climbed the hill 
of Montmartre and had our first glimpse of the Cafe Carrara 
and L'Abbaye Theleme and the life which is in full swing 
until dawn appears. 



21 



Wednesday, July 8th. 

This was our red letter day with first news from home, 
and we spent the morning over our mail. After luncheon 
at Rumpelmayer's, we went into the Latin Quarter, called 
on a Beaux Arts student, walked through the Luxembourg 
gardens, down the paths bordered by the statues of the 
geniuses who have been honored there; Watteau, Pericles 
and Delacroix, etc. The roses were all in bloom, the chil- 
dren were playing a sort of lawn tennis game, one old man 
was feeding some very tiny birds and was so much absorbed 
in these little creatures that he seemed quite oblivious to the 
crowd of interested spectators. We sat down not far from 
the beautiful Fountain de Medici and willingly paid our 
centimes to the woman who collects the price of rented park 
chairs. 

The Pantheon was already closed for the night by the 
time we had crossed the Boulevard St. Michel, but the old 
book stalls on both sides of the Rue Soufflot were most in- 
teresting to see. 



22 



Thursday, July 9th. 

We took the eleven-ten train for Fontainebleau and ar- 
riving at luncheon time, went to the France et d'Angleterre, 
a most attractive and quaint little Inn opposite the Palace. 
The Innkeeper's grandfather owned the place originally and 
with it purchased five thousand old prints, many of them 
copies of Louvre paintings, bright colored English hunt- 
ing scenes, and humorous scenes of French Cafe life. We 
lunched in an enclosed porch, where on a background of 
turkey red were prints, hundreds of them, tastefully ar- 
ranged. We found them again on the walls of the stairway, 
again on the second floor and in the guest room. 

We reached the Palace in time to follow with some 
Philadelphia friends we met, a French guide and another 
crowd of French sightseers. I am beginning to realize how 
the French travel their native country and how intensely they 
enjoy it. 

The Palace stands on the site of the old chateau founded 
by Louis VII in the twelfth century. This present palace 
was built for Francis I. Much of the decorating was done 
by Rossi and Primaticcio and artists of the School of Fon- 
tainebleau. Henry IV and his son Louis XIII made many 
additions to it, and later Louis Phillipe and Napoleon III 
did more restoring. 

Everywhere the Henrys have well advertised them- 
selves, we saw H's all about in beautifully carved wood work 
and many F's for the elaborate Francis. His room is lavishly 
decorated with salamanders and beautiful tapestries. 

The room of Henry II, or Salle de Bal, shows plainly 



23 



in whose honor it was decorated. There is a handsome 
chimney at the end of the long hall, frescoes of mythological 
subjects and everywhere the crescent and monogram D. 
The library, called the Gallerie de Diane, was the spot in 
which I should like to have lingered ; it was ninety-four yards 
in length, has thirty thousand volumes of books and was 
founded by Napoleon III in 1855. It was interesting to see 
the bed-room in which Louis XIII was born, also the room 
of St. Louis, the oldest part of the Palace. 

The King's stairway of marble is a beauty with its 
statues by Jean Goujon and paintings after Primaticcio, and 
from its windows we looked into the Cour Ovale with its fine 
colonnades of early Renaissance. 

The apartments of Marie Antoinette are filled with silk 
hangings, Beauvais tapestry and paintings by Boucher, 
while the bed-room of Anne of Austria is even more elab- 
orate with not only the Beauvais tapestries but with the ceil- 
ing and walls much ornamented. 

Pope Pius XII was a prisoner in one of these apart- 
ments ; Catherine de Medici also occupied them. Madame 
de Maintenon did not live in quite the same luxurious sur- 
roundings apparently, for her rooms were much simpler. 
The Gallerie des Assiettes is an interesting idea of Louis 
Phillipe's, its panels are made up of one hundred and twenty- 
eight plates. 

We had time for a walk about the gardens and watched 
the greedy carp in the pond being fed, looked in vain for 
Catherine de Medici's "C," supposed to be chained to the 
fishes, but evidently they have lived their lives and passed into 
the place where all good fishes go. We wandered through 



24 




FONTAINEBLEAU— Hotel de France et d'Angleterre 



some of the forest paths and back again to the Inn refreshed 
ourselves with tea. Friends took us to Paris by motor, so we 
had the advantage of seeing more of the country on our 
homeward route. 

We had a delightful dinner at the Madrid; most of the 
tables were under the trees and when we sat down at eight, 
it was still daylight. Later we drove out the boulevards as 
far as the Port St. Martin, and saw cafes upon cafes; it 
seemed as if all of Paris had turned out to find their little iron 
table and chairs, have a drink which lasts an hour or so, and 
watch the crowds pass by. 



25 



^ 



Friday, July 10th. 

We walked through the Court of Des Invalides, saw 
the painting of a huge battle scene along the wall and two 
tremendous equestrian statues of one, especially fine of the 
horse. 

At one the doors had just opened for visitors to Na- 
poleon's Tomb and as the sun was bright, we saw the glori- 
ous golden light from the amber windows at its very best. 

In the crypt we looked at the tombs of the famous gen- 
erals Bertrand and Duroc and again above, we saw the mon- 
uments of the brothers of the Great Napoleon, beautifully 
carved in stone. 

We lunched at Ledoyen's on the Champs Elysees, then 
made a tour of the Cluny Museum and enjoyed the coolness 
of the stone steps of the old baths. It is the hottest day we 
have had and the Cluny was deliciously cool. 

This museum is filled to overflowing with the most in- 
teresting and unique carvings, pottery, statuary, ornaments 
of all sorts, jewels and most curious keys, large and queerly 
wrought rings with jewels in the shape of doves and pea- 
cocks, etc., beautiful fayence and Flemish altar pieces. There 
is wonderfully carved furniture, tapestry and mosaics- I 
believe every country in the world must be somehow repre- 
sented with relics from the hundreds B.C. Among the little 
statues were a "Christ taken out of the Tomb," beautifully 
done, and a Marie Madeleine by a Fleming. 

We drove homeward through the Rue D'Ecole de 
Medicine full of interesting old shops, passed the Boule- 
vard St. Germain where, as nearly as I could make out, Dan- 

26 



ton lived. We saw his statue near by and thought of those 
Revolutionary days and the frantic crowds which then 
thronged these streets in their mad desire to kill the tyrants 
who had trodden upon their liberty. 



27 



Saturday, July 11th. 

This morning the sun was still bursting with brightness, 
but its warmth did not in the least dampen the ardour of the 
shoppers in the Galeries Lafayette where I went. It was the 
great bon marche day, and bargains there were of the most 
marvelous sort. 

I had a cooler hour later looking over etchings at Haute- 
cours, and at the Cafe de Paris had so refreshing a meal that 
we were quite ready again for the Louvre and spent an hour 
over the statuary. 

In the evening, went with Ed and a friend to the Theatre 
Marigny where I saw every variety of dress from the simple 
French blouse to the most beaded and elaborate decollete. 
The dancing was good and after we had seen enough of it, 
we went to the Bal Tabarin. There the place was crowded, 
but we found one unengaged table in a good place to watch 
the dancers. The South Americans seemed to be great fav- 
orites; they have plenty of money to spend, and Paris is a 
fascinating place in which to spend it. They dance well and 
help considerably in adding their share of entertainment in 
the cabarets. It did not take longer than an hour and a half 
for me to feel that I had seen and felt all the sensations of 
the place, but as we rose to go, a man who had been sitting 
at a near-by table seemed much disturbed and explained in 
good English that we were missing the best part of the even- 
ing. The men were delighted at the sound of the English 
suggestion of seeing more and were soon deep in conversa- 
tion with their new friend. He was an Englishman who had 
married a Frenchwoman and his companion turned out to 
be his French niece. She spoke not a word of English, so, 



28 



with all the French I could collect, we talked of the amuse- 
ment before us and agreed that a little of this cabaret went 
a long way with us. The niece and I felt we had a great deal 
in common, being the only women in the place with natural 
color and unpainted eyebrows. 

Finally the event worth waiting for took place in the 
shape of a parade of all the performers who had entertained 
us during the evening; they walked, rode and lay upon floats 
dazzling with gilt and artificial flowers and bright colors. 
The confetti throwing began and continued, and was still 
continuing as we made our way out of this centre of Parisian 
gayety. 



29 



Sunday, July 12th. 

The day was warm and overcast as we started at noon in 
a motor for Chantilly. Mr. S. went with us and we stopped 
first at the chapel of St. Denis where all the French kings are 
buried. The Basilique was built over the grave of St. Denis, 
and under the influence of St. Genevieve, the clergy of Paris 
built the chapel in the second half of the fifth century. Re- 
construction took place by Pepin Le Bref in 750 and finished 
in Charlemagne's reign. The Abbot Suger in 1121 rebuilt 
all but the crypt and a few columns. Suger's building was 
the first important edifice in which Gothic windows are used 
and may be called the true starting point of that architecture. 
In 1241 a thorough restoration was necessary and was under- 
taken by the Abbots Clemont and Vendome, who rebuilt the 
choir, nave and transepts — Gothic. St. Louis began the cus- 
tom of building memorials to the kings by erecting monu- 
ments to his ancestors. Under the Revolution of 1792 the 
tombs were desecrated and restored again by Napoleon I 
and Louis XVIII, but under Napoleon III the better work 
by Violett Le Due was done. 

On the tomb of Louis XII and Anne de Bretagne, the 
King and Queen are represented on the sarcophagus lying 
down, also above the sarcophagus kneeling. On the pedestal 
are reliefs of Louis' Entry into Milan, the Victory of Agna- 
dello, etc. 

Then there was the tomb of Henri II and Catherine de 
Medici built under the direction of Primaticcio. In the 
crypt is the burial vault of the Bourbons, containing the 
bodies of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette, brought here 
from the Madeleine cemetery, the last Princes of the House 
of Conde and many other families of the Royalty. On the 

30 



o 

x 
> 

2 

r 
r 




drive to Chantilly it was rather nice to have the sky overcast, 
for a bright sun today would have given us a great deal of 
heat. 

After a refreshing luncheon, we crossed the moat sep- 
arating the Chateau from the ground and following in the 
footsteps of the crowd, bought bread for the carps' Sunday 
dinner. These fish must have a limitless capacity for food ; 
they grabbed ours as greedily as if they had not been fed for 
the last few hours and still they were ready for more. 

The Chateau, the former home of the Conde's, is full 
of paintings of that family, sculptures, art treasures and heir- 
looms collected by Louis Phillipe, the last of the Conde's. 
There were paintings by the Dutch, Italian and the French 
of all ages; an interesting work of art was forty miniatures 
from a Book of Hours by Jean Fouquet, going way back 
to 1452-60. 

There is a room full of gems, enamels, porcelains, 
beautiful fayence, Nancy ware and jewels of great original- 
ity and value. 

The apartment called the Chatelet is filled with pictures 
of hunting scenes, bear hunts, and dogs. The furniture is 
beautifully upholstered in Beauvais tapestry. A fine library 
containing 13,000 volumes was full of interest to us. Among 
its treasures is a Psalter of St. Louis, 1214. 

The decorative little chapel is in Renaissance, with its 
marquetry and woodwork of 1548. The stained windows 
are fine and there is a beautiful altar by Jean Bullant and 
Jean Goujon. There is an imposing mausoleum of Henry 
II de Conde, father of the Grand Conde, also a cippus con- 
taining the hearts of several of the Conde princes. 



31 



Monday, July 13th. 

It was a very warm day and it took real energy to walk 
to the Cafe des Ambassadeurs for luncheon, but the cool 
porch and attractive outlook among trees and flowers fully 
repaid and refreshed us. Afterward in the Theatre des Am- 
bassadeurs, we saw a silly little play, where the French sense 
of humor was curiously displayed. 

Walking along the Champs Elysees, we saw prepara- 
tions, and the real commencement of the Bastile holiday. 
Booths of toys and balloons were beginning to fill up and 
refreshments were served under the shade of the trees. The 
families were all out to celebrate, babies in perambulators, 
nurses and mothers were all there. Even though the families 
were picnicking with lunches and bottles, the Champs Ely- 
sees as usual looked perfectly fresh and clean. I don't know 
of another city which could be populous with picnickers and 
remain as well kept as is characteristic of these spots in Paris. 

In the evening we went to the Opera House and heard 
Les Hugenots; the company was French and the orchestra 
good. The plot was particularly interesting in its allusions 
to the Condes, the Chateau of whom we had lately visited. 
The story is of the massacre of the Hugenots in 1572 and the 
efforts of Margaret of Valois to reconcile the Protestants and 
Catholics. The Condes and Colignys were leaders among 
the Hugenots. Between the acts, we walked through the 
beautiful Foyer and out on to the balcony where we watched 
the crowded corner below. 

We walked home through the narrow Rue du Mont 
Thabor and as we heard music in that direction, we knew the 
dancing had begun, and there, sure enough, the sound 

32 



carried us to a man with a fiddle doing his best to make music 
for his street full of dancers. We recognized some of the 
Meurice attendants and what amazed me was the quietness 
and simplicity of the way it is done in these back streets. It 
must be another story at Montmartre, I understand it is hope- 
less for a tourist to attempt to go there in a taxi while the holi- 
day lasts; his taxi would simply be pushed aside. It is the 
one time of the year when the beggars are allowed to be 
abroad asking for centimes, and we met them, too, before we 
retired for the night. 



33 



Tuesday, July 14th. 

The great Bastile day — warm and overcast. Drove to 
the Gare du Nord with Ed and saw him off for London 
where he went for Hilda, who was coming that far to meet 
him from Wales. The city is gay with flags and crowds of 
people swarm everywhere; only the little shops are open, 
but every cafe looks most enticing. I lunched at Rumpel- 
mayer's and my only excitement for the remainder of the day 
was to watch the fireworks in the evening. I had a good 
view of them from the hotel. 



Wednesday, July 15th. 

After the fireworks, the thunder and lightning did their 
part in the celebration and cooled off the air considerably. 
I spent the day letter-writing and was delighted in the even- 
ing to find Ed and Hilda just arriving. 



34 



Thursday, July 16th. 

We took Hilda to the Louvre and spent our time with 
the masterpieces she was most familiar with. We sat on the 
stairway for quite a while getting a view of the beautiful 
Victory of Samothrace from all points. On the same stair- 
way we found Botticelli's familiar and beautiful "Three 
Graces." We lingered quite a while in the Salon Carre, 
going over again the "Mona Lisa," the Raphaels, Titians, 
the huge "Marriage at Cana" and other Italian works. Then 
through the rooms representing the schools of Florence, 
Umbria and Parma. Among the Spanish paintings we 
stopped to see Murillo's "Birth of the Virgin" and his pictur- 
esque "Young Mendicant." 

In the British Hall we found Constable's landscapes, 
especially "Le Cottage," attractive in its simplicity, and some 
good Bonington's. 

In the Salle des Primatifs we found Ghirlandaio's fine 
"Old Man and Boy," also "Christ on the way to Golgotha." 
Then Fra Fillipo Lippi's School, the painting of "The 
School of Anatomy" by Rembrant and the works of Rem- 
brant's colleagues and Atelier. 

We had to let the modern painting go this morning as 
it was quite past the usual luncheon time when we came 
down the stairway again. We had a delicious out-door 
luncheon at the Hermitage, spent the afternoon at the Bon 
Marche, and dined at the Cafe Madrid. 



35 



Friday, July 1 7th. 

We all spent the morning at the Luxembourg and I 
should like to have spent a week of mornings among that 
beautiful modern statuary. 

Rodin's "Le Baiser," of course, is a masterpiece, but 
there are so many other remarkable pieces I did not know of. 
Dampt's "Le Baiser de l'Aieule" is the kiss of an elderly 
woman upon a baby's head and the smile of that baby is as 
real as if the stone had turned to flesh. Then Nissen's "Art- 
iste" is full of expression and life. There is a great dane of 
Lecourtier feeding her little puppies which was irresistible 
and a very modern bust called "Le Jeune Femme," her 
dress, hair and features quite as natural and attractive as any 
living jeune femme one could imagine. 

Among the paintings was a most unusual one of three 
men working upon a floor with their planes. This was called 
"Les Raboteurs des Parquets" by Gustave Caillebotte, then 
there was Jules Breton's "Gleaners," so familiar in our 
country ; Cottet's three scenes of " Au Pays de la Mer" and 
Puvis de Chavannes' curious appearing "Le Pauvre Pe- 
cheur." 

Foyot's proved the nicest place to lunch in, quite con- 
trary to its outside appearance. Afterward we had a lovely 
walk in the Luxembourg gardens and ended with the Pan- 
theon. 

The sun was shining its best through the windows upon 
the panels illustrating the life of the lovely St. Genevieve, 
Chavannes' charming work of the "Shepherdess Girl" kneel- 
ing with her sheep about her, later her conversion of Clovis 



36 



and Clotilde and her miraculous delivery of Paris from 
Atilla the Hun. 

The vault was a dreary place but we were glad to have 
seen the resting place of Rousseau, Victor Hugo and Presi- 
dent Carnot and escape into the sunshine again. 



37 



Saturday, July 18th. 

Packed all morning, shopped in the fascinating Rue de 
Rivoli shops and lunched at Rumpelmayer's. We climbed 
to the upper balcony of Notre Dame where there is a little 
woman who sells postals and cheap souvenirs, but I felt too 
dizzy to count my centimes for a purchase and was so glad 
to get down to the comfortable Rue below. 

We walked to the Conciergerie especially to see the ex- 
quisite Sainte Chapelle, a portion of the remains of the royal 
period of the Palais de Justice. The lower part was used by 
the domestics of the chapel, but after a climb to the upper 
story we came to the famous stained glass windows; there 
are fifteen of them, dating from the time of St. Louis. The 
scenes are biblical and the radiancy of the light from them 
was almost dazzling even on this dark afternoon. The two 
recesses reserved for the royal family were pointed out to us 
and it was interesting to see the little grated opening where 
Louis XI used to attend service without being seen. 

We walked down the length of one of the long galleries 
of the Conciergerie and had glimpses of the court rooms ad- 
joining them, but it was too late to see the dungeons of Marie 
Antoinette and Robespierre and other noted prisoners of the 
Revolution and Terror, nor the gallery through which the 
poor victims took their last walk, and I was quite content not 
to go further into their hours of wretchedness. 



38 




PUVIS DE CHAVANNES Mural Painting in the Pantheon 



Sunday, July 19th. 

Fine warm day. At ten o'clock we started in the Hotch- 
kiss again with Charlet for Versailles, bidding a reluctant 
good-bye to beautiful Paris. It is only twelve miles from the 
city and we were at the Palace gate within an hour. We 
found a Swiss who spoke our language so well that it was a 
pleasure to visit the building with him. He had great pride 
in every inch of the Palace and grew eloquent as we came to 
the top of the great stairway where his ancestors, the brave 
Swiss guards, had held back the mob in such noble defense 
of their Queen, the unfortunate Marie Antoinette. From the 
balcony above, we saw the orangery of twelve hundred trees 
and the lake made for the Queen by her guards, then the 
room in memory of these guards. In this room is a bust of 
Marie Antoinette by La Conte. Then there were the apart- 
ments of the Queen, surprisingly small but beautifully dec- 
orated. Maria Theresa and Marie Lesczinska have both 
slept in these same rooms and it was in these apartments that 
we saw the original of the famous painting of Marie An- 
toinette by Mme. Lebrun and the Marie Lesczinska by Nat- 
tier. The walls have Gobelin tapestries. 

The Galerie des Batailles is a fine large hall full of paint- 
ings of the battles of Napoleon, many of them by Vernet, and 
busts of fifty famous warriors who fell in battle. Among 
the scenes of foreign war, we were glad to find Couder's 
Siege of Yorktown in America with Washington and 
Rochambeau. 

The gardens, the Cour d' Honneur and fountains were 
superb and as this was the first Sunday after the 14th, 
the fountains were to play in the evening. We lunched at 



39 



the Hotel Trianon and so did a large part of Paris, I should 
say ; every space of that large hotel was filled both inside and 
on the verandah. 

Afterward we walked through the Petit Trianon, 
through the pretty little woods about the lake and the rustic 
village where the Queen played at Dairymaid with her court 
ladies in those happy days of long ago. At three o'clock we 
were off again through the magnificent forests of Versailles. 

From out of the shadow of the woods we came upon 
Rambouillet, the summer home of the President. This 
chateau was where Frangois I died and where Charles X 
signed his abdication to the throne. 

Passed through Epernon, then Maintenon on the Eure, 
from which Franchise d'Aubigne, widow of the Poet Scar- 
ron, took her title of Marquise de Maintenon when she 
married Louis XIV. A long stretch of road was through 
the Plain of Beauce which can almost be called the granary 
of France. The spires of Chartres Cathedral could be seen 
miles away. Arriving at the town, we went directly to it, 
and such a beauty we found it ! Of all the cathedrals I have 
ever seen, this is the loveliest. 

According to tradition the Notre Dame was built upon 
a grotto where the Druids celebrated the worship of a Virgin 
who should bear a child. The cathedral is Gothic of the 
twelfth and thirteenth centuries. It is flanked by two fine 
towers rising to a height of three hundred and fifty feet and 
there is a richly designed spire spoken of as the most beauti- 
ful in all Europe. On the side portals are sculptures repre- 
senting scenes from the life of the Virgin and the Last Judg- 
ment, wonderfully done, but in the inside, more beautiful 



40 



H 
H 

I— I 
> 

o 
< 

en 
> 

r 
r 
w 

en 




still is the choir screen with its lace tracery of stone. Other 
cathedrals may vie with this or surpass it in many respects, 
but this delicate lace work of stone in beauty and extent is 
simply incomparable. Interesting, too, were the forty-one 
sculptured groups representing the lives of the Madonna 
and Christ. The superb rose windows, there were three of 
them, left an impression I cannot soon forget. 

From Chartres our road took us, an hour and a half 
later, to Chateaudun. This is in much of a state of ruin and 
was formerly the house of the good Duke Dunois. Of par- 
ticular interest in it was a fine Gothic stairway. The gate- 
keeper lives in a little house by the entrance and left his sup- 
per to show us through — a hurried trip, as the evening was 
well along. 

We reached the Grand Hotel in Blois at six-fifty. 



41 



Monday, July 20th. 



It was overcast and cool when we started for Chambord. 
Our road was by the river Loire and at eleven we drove up 
the lovely avenue of fir trees to the Chateau. 

The family of the Duke of Parma who died lately, leav- 
ing nineteen children, keep the Chateau in good repair and 
live in it during the hunting season. 

The palace was probably built in 1526 by Pierre 
Nepveu. We first climbed the great double stairway of two 
parallel flights, unrolling in the form of spirals in the same 
direction. 

In the ballroom in which the Marshal of Saxony died, 
we saw many portraits and busts of the house of Chambord 
and among them a bronze of the Duke of Berri — 1778, son 
of Charles V and father of the Count of Chambord, who was 
murdered by Louvel, also a portrait of Marie Lesczinska, 
daughter of the King of Poland, who married Louis XVI. 

The oratory of Francis I is full of F's and salamanders 
as Francis always said he loved to live in the flame of love. 
The original door of the oratory is well preserved and curi- 
ous. On the window pane Francis wrote in French "After 
woman changes, he is foolish who puts his trust in her." 

The drawing room was full of interesting portraits; 
Anne of Austria, wife of Louis XIII, Maria Theresa of 
Austria, who married Louis XIV, etc. A beautiful mantle- 
piece of marble was well worth noting. In the Salle a 
Manger of Louis XIV is an interesting collection, though 



42 




CHARTRES— La Cathedrale 




CHARTRES— La Cathedrale 



quite modern, of toy cannons and guns of all sorts with which 
the young Count de Chambord was educated. Another in- 
teresting room was the one in which Henry V was to have 
lived. The exquisitely carved walnut bed and the embroid* 
ered tapestries were prepared for his coming in 1879, six 
years beforehand by the royal ladies of Poitou. The letters 
H V and M T for Henry V and his wife Maria Theresa 
were carved on the bed. His coronation robe was also in 
readiness. Then came the Revolution and Henry felt he 
could not accept the throne. He left France and died in 
Austria, and so loved was he, the last of the Bourbons, that 
over three thousand Frenchmen came to pay him the last 
honours. 

From a gallery, we saw the modern lanterne, modeled 
from the old one which now stands in the hall below, and 
upon the roof we had a good view of the towers of Cham- 
bord ; it was interesting to notice the simplicity of the Tower 
of Henry II compared with the ornamentation of the tower 
of his father, King Francis. The stables, very numerous, 
too, corresponding to the palace, are now used as quarters 
for the caretakers and guides. 

Back to Blois, we visited its Chateau and found it full of 
the memories of Louis XII and Anne de Bretagne with their 
porcupine and ermine symbols. From the court we climbed 
the beautiful Gothic stairway of Francis I, and above, the 
guide took us into the large room and showed us the gate in 
front of which the Duke de Guise was talking with his 
brother, the Cardinal of Lorraine, when he, the Duke de 
Guise, was called aside by the cowardly Henry III. The 
King, keeping discreetly within a little ante room, allowed 
the guards, numbering forty-five, to do their murderous 
work, after which he had the courage to come out and, thrust- 

43 



ing his victim aside with his foot, say, "He seems greater in 
death than in life." 

Our guide, with gesticulations, described it all so dra- 
matically, enlarging many times upon the fact that there 
were forty-five men against the one poor defenseless duke, it 
made my blood run cold and I am sure it will be the most 
vivid picture in Hilda's mind of all we have seen today. 

We went into the room of Catherine de Medici where 
she and her astrologer mixed their poisonous drinks and hid 
them away behind secret panels. We looked out of the win- 
dow from which Maria Theresa, mother of Louis XIII, 
escaped from her imprisonment, aided by the Duke d'Eper- 
non and a rope ladder. Near-by we had a glimpse of the 
dungeon wherein the Cardinal of Lorraine was imprisoned. 
In this same wing of Francis I the walls are covered with 
paper, dark blue with a figure representing the original 
tapestries. 

Lunched again at the Grand and at one forty-five started 
for Chaumont (Warm Hill). Along the winding Loire we 
passed through beautiful country, crossed the river and 
stopped before the gateway of the Chateau. It is at quite a 
height above the valley so our approach was uphill and 
through the prettiest walk with green shrubbery and trees 
meeting over our heads, so thickly grown that it was like a 
well-trimmed road in the woods. 

Across the drawbridge into the court, we walked out to 
the vine-covered wall on the edge of the hill and saw the 
valley of the Loire at its best. There was an interesting old 
well in the court yard and we amused ourselves calling down 
into it and hearing the echo some seconds later. We had a 
good view of the two wings of the Chateau while we waited 

44 




CHATEAU DE CHATEAUDUN 



for our guide. The east wing is lived in by the family of the 
Prince de Broglie, the west is the wing visitors are allowed 
to visit and it was into this part that our guide, a young 
French girl, took us. 

The winding staircase led us to the Salle des Gardes 
which has a ceiling painted in 1539 covered with the arms 
of Amboise and Chaumont, finely wrought andirons and 
armor. The Salle de Conseil has a pavement of Palermo 
tiles and splendid Brussels tapestry of the fifteenth century. 

In the bed-room of Catherine de Medici are a bed, dress- 
ing tables and chairs of most beautiful carving, and a prie 
dieu upon which lies an open book and then there are more 
lovely tapestries. The same room was used at one time by 
Diane de Poitiers. In quite a small room but also filled with 
exquisitely carved furniture Ruggiero, Catherine's astrolo- 
ger lived. Diane's room contains her portrait, furniture and 
bed of the sixteenth century. 

From a balcony we looked down into a very pretty little 
chapel which the Broglie family use. The portrait of Cardi- 
nal George Amboise, who built the Chateau, hangs in the 
chapel with his hat beside it. 

Outside we looked on the two high towers at the en- 
trance of Chaumont for the initials of the Amboise and 
found G A upon one, the other being ornamented with C A 
for Charles, who commenced the present Chateau after 1473. 
Above the gateway are the initials of Anne de Bretagne and 
Louis XII. 

As we again joined the river Loire, we found the sun 
still high so turned in the direction of Amboise, another 
home of Anne de Bretagne. This Chateau of a most formid- 

45 



able appearance dates from the fourteenth-fifteenth cen- 
turies. Up a stony road we walked among a large crowd of 
French tourists and were repaid for our climb by finding 
ourselves in a garden full of delicious roses, honeysuckles 
and clematis. 

First to the chapel of Saint Hubert, built about 1491, 
and a beautiful example of Gothic architecture. Over its 
door is the vision of St. Hubert in relief and above is the 
Virgin between Charles XIII and Anne de Bretagne. The 
stone carving inside is of the most exquisite lace work, and 
like that of the Chartres Cathedral, but even finer. 

A tablet marks the spot under which Leonardo da Vinci 
is probably buried, having died in a manor near-by. In the 
garden again, we found his bust surrounded by the loveliest 
of flowers. 

In the Tour des Minimes we followed the famous ascent 
up which the chevaliers of old used to ride upon their horses. 
From the top we had a fine sweeping view of the town and 
many others in the distance. Part way down to the Salle des 
Gardes, we came again upon the balcony with the iron rail- 
ing from which Catherine de Medici made poor Marie 
Stuart and Francis II watch the massacre of the Hugenots 
below. The butchering of these people was the result of a 
discovered plot of theirs for removing young Francis II 
from the influences of the Guises. The plot was discovered 
which ended in the massacre of St. Bartholomew. 

Francis I spent his youth in this castle, educated in art 
and learning far more than for government and necessary 
fighting. He and his sister Louise were carefully taught by 
their mother, Louise de Valois. 



46 




CHAMBORD 




AMBOISE 



In the Tour Hurtault we saw the long, easy ascent 
made for Charles Fifth of Spain when he came to visit 
Francis I. 

Anne de Bretagne had only a small bare room in this 
Chateau. The castle dates from the fourteenth-fifteenth cen- 
turies. 

From the Loire valley into that of the Cher, we came 
to Chenonceaux and had another walk through a lovely ave- 
nue of plane trees, past the tower and between two sphinxes 
over the drawbridge to the Chateau. This beautiful build- 
ing of the sixteenth century is placed over the Cher by means 
of huge piles. Francis I often visited here and Henry II 
presented the Chateau to his Diane, but after his death Cath- 
erine de Medici compelled her to exchange it for Chau- 
mont. This happiest of chateaux was the scene of much of 
Henry IPs pleasantest hours with Diane, and Francis II and 
Marie Stuart enjoyed their honeymoon there, and many days 
were spent in boat rides upon the river in which Jean Gou- 
jon, the young sculptor, took them. The poet Tasso visited 
Catherine at Chenonceaux, and it is this Chateau alone that 
was not at all demolished during the revolution, due to 
Madame the owner at that time who was much loved by the 
people. It rained just a little before we entered Tours where 
we had a most comfortable night at the Hotel de 1' Univers. 



47 



Tuesday, July 21st. 

Azay. The sun was shining again when we started this 
morning bright and early for the chateau Azay-le-Rideau. 
Our road took us between vineyards upon vineyards in one 
of the famous wine-making districts of France, past the 
most curious little holes in the hillsides which, when we 
looked above and saw smoke, we realized were the homes 
of the grape-growers and the smoke was coming from their 
chimneys. 

Crossing the Loire again, several miles through the 
forest, then over a moat, we came to charming Azay-le- 
Rideau, said to be one of the purest examples of early Renais- 
sance. A wing running from one end of the main building 
ends with a tower, and four smaller projecting turrets flank 
the corners of the Chateau. It was built in 1518-1529 by 
Giles Berthelot, Treasurer of Finance, and in 1905 was pur- 
chased by the State. It is said that the original Chateau on 
this site goes back to 1266, built by a Rideau, and that later, 
Charles VII before he became King was passing in front of 
the Chateau when he was insulted by the Burgundy garrison 
stationed there. He therefore punished the offenders and 
burnt the town. Since then the town was known as Azay le 
Brule (Azay the burnt) and the Chateau of 1518 as Azay- 
le-Rideau. 

In the building are museum collections of attractively 
carved furniture, etc., and portraits of its former occupants. 

Behind is the Indre and many little streams of the river 
over which rustic bridges have been built and trees and 
green foliage make it appear a little fairyland. It was this 
beauty spot which appealed so to young Francis, son of 

48 




RIGNY-USSE 




CHENONCEAUX 



Catherine de Medici ; he declared that if he, with his sweet- 
heart Marie Stuart, could live and love there forever, he 
would be well content to let young Henry of Guise have all 
the troublesome business of reigning. 

After crossing the Indre, our ride was through the 
lovely dark forests of Chinon to its castle on the Vienne. 
The site of Chinon goes back to 427 when St. Brice founded 
a parochial church there. Its first use was as a Celtic Oppi- 
dum, afterward a Roman Castrum. In the twelfth century 
the Chateau came into the hands of Henry II of England 
who died there in 1189. His son, Richard Coeur de Lion, 
also died there after his fatal wound at Limousin ; but most 
interesting to us was the fact that in this very spot in 1428 
the maid of Orleans came to consult Charles VII as to the 
relief of Orleans which was being besieged by the English. 
The great Chateau is really divided into three separate fort- 
resses, the Chateau St. Georges of the twelfth century, du 
Milieu of the nth, 12th and 13th centuries, and du Coudray, 
in which Jean d' Arc lived for several weeks in 1429 under 
guard of a lieutenant of Charles VII. 

Then there are the Tour du Boissy and the Tour du 
Moulin, the tallest, on the floor of which we found cannon 
balls, telling the tale of fortification days. We had brought 
our luncheon and ate it among the old walls of the Grand 
Logis of the Chateau du Mileau. There was a fine old 
chimney in this Logis and through a window of the tower 
we had a splendid picture of the town and the Vienne below 
us. 

After luncheon we explored some dark passages which 
were probably part of the secret passages by which Charles 



49 



was able to visit Agnes Sorel, his great favorite, for whom 
he provided a house in the neighborhood. 

Another lovely ride to Usse where we were only per- 
mitted to visit the grounds and chapel, but the remarkable 
Cedar of Lebanon we saw as we walked up the hill would 
in itself have paid for the trip had we seen no further. A 
regiment of French troops were camping through that part 
of the country and it is the habit of every house, large or 
small, to shelter the soldiers. The owners of Usse were away 
but the hospitality of its house had been extended to the lucky 
officers who must not only have enjoyed the luxury of the 
house, but also the very lovely gardens surrounding it. 

We stood in the Cour d' Honneur, overflowing with 
flowers and foliage, and had a fine view of the two wings of 
the Chateau, originally of the fifteenth and sixteenth cen- 
turies. The velvety terraces were done by Vauban, who 
surely had an eye for beauty and making the most of the lo- 
cation of Usse. 

Three years ago, our woman guide told us, a piece of 
statuary was stolen from the Chateau, not by an American, 
I am thankful to say, but naturally tourists are no longer 
allowed to visit the house. The little chapel used by the 
family we could and did visit and found again some of Jean 
Goujon's beautiful carving. 

The imposing Chateau of Langeais of the fifteenth cen- 
tury we could see in the distance. Originally it was built by 
Fulques the Black. The present Chateau was planned by 
Jean Bourre, minister of Louis XI, but most interesting to 
us was the fact that it was here that the marriage of Charles 
VIII and Anne de Bretagne took place. 



50 



> 

O 
> 




The last of our day of chateaux was Luynes, owned by 
the Duke of Luynes, with massive towers and a formidable 
front. We had left the sunshine behind at Chinon and our 
ride to Tours was made in a delicious summer shower, mak- 
ing the valley of the Loire look, if possible, greener and more 
attractive than ever. One thing that interested us much on 
this ride was the large amount of mistletoe we saw. Lux- 
uriant and interesting it was, but our feelings for the trees 
were much as though we had seen some domestic animal 
afflicted with and yielding up its life to a malignant disease. 



51 



Wednesday, July 22nd. 

Tours. The sun was again shining as we had our first 
chance to look about this beautifully kept town of Tours, the 
largest city of Touraine, the province which excels all others 
in the romance of loves and wars of ages gone and the point 
from which most of the famous chateaux are reached. 

We stopped first to see the Cathedral of St. Gatien, the 
spires of which we saw so plainly on our first approach to 
the city, pointing heavenward into a clouded sky, and were 
this morning outlined in all their splendor against a back- 
ground of glorious blue. Inside are the tombs of the chil- 
dren of Charles VIII and Anne de Bretagne. There are 
splendid stained glass windows and the appearance of an 
unusual perspective is given by the narrowing of the nave 
towards the choir. 

Leaving Tours and its cathedral behind us, we started 
south along the banks of the Indre. It was only a short ride 
to the ancient-looking town of Loches, and quite a climb to 
within the walls of the castle. 

Our guide took us through a porch of the sixteenth cen- 
tury and into the chapel of Saint Ours, used regularly by the 
people of Loches. The main door of the chapel has an in- 
teresting arch of the twelfth century, carved with allegorical 
figures. There is a huge clock tower surmounting the bay 
of the nave, also of the twelfth century. The choir stalls 
of the sixteenth century are of really beautiful carving. By 
candle light, we went into the crypt, another secret passage 
of the rascal Louis XI. There we saw a remarkably well 
preserved wall fresco of St. Brice, and in the chapel of the 
Virgin, the guide called our attention to stained glass win- 

52 




CHINON 



dows which tell the story of the "Sash of the Virgin." This 
relic, the sash, was formerly kept in the Treasury and it was 
to furnish a sanctuary for this relic that the church of Saint 
Ours was built. 

Our next walk among this collection of interesting 
buildings was by the Chateau Royal, part of which is now 
used as the sub-prefecture and has had for its inmates Charles 
VII and VIII and Louis XI and XII. Within we found a 
very small room, the oratory of Anne de Bretagne, the walls 
fairly covered with ermines and cordeliers. 

In the basement of the Tour de Agnes Sorel we found 
her tomb and there was her statue (recumbent) with two 
angels kneeling by her head and at her feet two little lambs 
— an impressive memorial to the frail but beautiful Agnes, 
the guiding star and best influence in the life of Charles VII. 
Agnes left a large sum of money to the monks of Loches and 
was buried in Saint Ours as she had wished. Later the 
monks put together scruples as to her past life and begged 
Louis XI to remove her body. The King, who had disliked 
Agnes, agreed provided the monks would give up the en- 
dowment. This, they refused to do, so she remained until 
the reign of Louis XVI when her tomb was removed to its 
present resting place. 

Outside we were called upon to enthuse over the mag- 
nificent marronnier planted by Francois I held together and 
supported by heavy beams. 

We walked down the cobbled stone way to look at the 
donjon, having heard much of its history. One look suf- 
ficed! The foundation of Loches was built by Foulques 
Nerra, eleventh century, rebuilt by Charles VII and forti- 



53 



fied; again strengthened by Louis XI and it was to punish 
the unfortunates who had fallen from the favor of this faith- 
less monarch, that he built the Tour Ronde. In vast halls 
were imprisoned the people of distinction, Thibault III, 
Comte de Tours, the Duke d'Alencon, Pierre de Bresze and 
Philippe de Savoie. Every sort of cruel instrument is shown 
in these halls. 

In the circular dungeon, ventilated only by the tiniest 
loopholes, are the famous cages invented by Cardinal Balue, 
who, after he had had the misfortune of displeasing his 
King, was encaged in one of his own make for eleven years. 

There is also the Tour Martelet, where one finds cell 
below cell going down many stone steps into absolute dark- 
ness and where, for nine years, Ludovico Sforza lived and 
tried to pass away the time by writing and painting on the 
walls. Other noted prisoners were Phillip de Comines and 
Comte de Saint Vallier, father of Diane de Poitiers. She 
secured his release by fascinating the enamoured of beauti- 
ful women, Frangois I. 

Down safely from the horrors of Loches we found the 
little town most interesting with its imposing Tour St. An- 
toine of Renaissance construction, and the Chancellerie, 
dating from Henry II. 

At eleven we were again on the road, following the 
winding Indre and passing more of the mysterious looking 
cave homes of the wine-producers. 

After lunching in Chateauroux at the Hotel de France, 
whose name is the only imposing thing it possesses, we 
walked a little through the town until Charlet overtook us. 
Then through La Chatre, a little beyond which we left the 



54 




LOCHES — Le Tombeau d'Agnes Sorel 




LOCHES 



Indre and took our course to the east. Near Chateaumeillant 
we had a glimpse of a fifteenth century chateau built by the 
Amboise of Chaumont. At Culan on the Arnon River, was 
another chateau. 

Passing through the provence of Berry, we saw the 
splendid looking pure white Berry cows. Then at five 
o'clock, in a small village, our first puncture on this entire 
trip took place and we had leisure to sit by the roadside and 
realize what extraordinary good luck had been with us. We 
saw more chateaux and a large modern house which showed 
the money that had been spent upon it by a prosperous fur- 
niture man, then came back to our friend the Loire again. 
In this part of the country recent rains have left their im- 
pression. The river has considerably overflowed its banks 
and groups of trees were divided off into little islands, a very 
pretty sight in the setting sun. 

We reached Vichy on the Allier, at seven o'clock, and 
spent the night at the Thermal Palace Hotel, one of the 
many high priced fashionable hotels in this most popular 
watering resort of France. The Park, the centre of Vichy, 
was just across the street from us so we walked about there 
in the evening. It is a beautifully shaded, delightfully cool 
spot and we lingered to hear the music from the Casino, took 
a look at the shops, as high priced as the hotels, but such 
fascinating articles, especially the candy stores, where that 
confection was made to look like every kind of fruit, and we 
were glad to find very comfortable beds after our day of 
travel. 



55 



Thursday, July 23rd. 

Vichy. After having done justice to the good water of 
Vichy, we left at eleven o'clock. The roads along the river 
bank were quite the worse for rain and we made slower 
progress than usual. 

We lunched at Roanne, quite an industrial town full 
of cotton and spinning mills. The Hotel de la Gare was 
fair, and we were soon crossing the Loire once more. Fur- 
ther on in the valley of the Turdine, we passed through 
Tarare, surrounded by mountains. Muslins and silk plush 
were manufactured here and there were some good old types 
of houses and another ruined castle. 

Past a huge dam of the Loire and through a very small 
town where steel knives are made, over many hills up and 
down, we came up on the top of one from which we could 
see the Cathedral of Lyons; a few moments more and we 
were in the City of Lyons at the confluence of the Rhone 
and Saone and stopping at the Hotel de Lyons. 

After dinner we walked along the quay of the river 
Rhone and found more marks of recent rains. The water 
had risen so that it quite covered many of the floors of the 
wash-houses, but the washerwomen apparently had not been 
disturbed and had hung their clothes up as high as possible. 



56 



Friday, July 24th. 

Commenced Hilda's birthday by having a huge bunch 
of the most beautiful roses for her at the breakfast table; the 
roses themselves were almost as tall as the birthday girl. We 
then gave her a choice of how we should spend the day and 
she chose the Exposition and Switzerland for the night, 
which gave us a great deal of ground to cover. Our first 
sight of interest was the Bourse opposite the hotel. Erected 
in 1853-60 in modern Renaissance, its inside court is alive 
with business transactions. There is a remarkable clock 
upon the Palais with three statues of the Present, Past and 
Future. It was as he was leaving this building June 24th, 
1894, tnat President Carnot was assassinated. 

Past the central square of the town we came upon one 
or the oldest churches in France, St. Martin d'Ainay, 
founded in the sixth century. This richly ornamented Rom- 
anesque church is said to be on the site of a school of rhetoric 
founded by Caligula Athenium, therefore the word Ainay. 
Quite a contrast to the old square was the Place Bellecour, 
the finest square in Lyons, where the band plays in the after- 
noon and the people promenade. From here we had a good 
view of the Fourviere hill in the distance and the Church of 
Notre Dame de Fourviere at a height of four hundred feet 
above us. This imposing church is of modern Byzantine 
architecture, the fulfillment of a vow made by the Lyons 
clergy during the war of 1870. The building is so flanked 
with towers that it gives the appearance of a fortress. Less 
imposing is the Chapelle de Notre-Dame de Fourviere with 
its bronze gilt statue of the Virgin glittering in the sun. This 
church is the favorite resort of many pilgrims. 

A most interesting group of buildings on the Rue de la 



57 



Republique is that of the Hotel Dieu, the oldest hospital of 
France, adorned with statues of its founders, King Childe- 
bert and Queen Altrogothe. Crossing a small Place de la 
Republique, we came to the monument of President Carnot, 
the much beloved martyr of France. 

From here we drove to the Exposition Grounds in the 
outskirts of the City. It is an International Exposition and 
would have been well worth a few days' study. Our time, 
however, was limited. We spent most of it looking over the 
process of silk manufacture from the worm and cocoon to 
the finished product. The materials that were exhibited 
were so beautiful in texture and in colors that we were fasci- 
nated with them and spent more time there than we expected. 
A brief glance through the British and American exhibits 
and a fleeting impression of the general arrangements and 
architecture had to suffice for the other parts. 

We returned to luncheon at the hotel. Immediately 
after, we were off for Switzerland at one-five. Our ride was 
first along the Rhone, which was very high and rushing at 
a tremendous speed ; then came an avenue of accacia trees, 
after which we met the Ain which joins the Rhone. The 
latter river is supposed to disappear for about five miles and 
nobody has discovered just where it has hidden itself, but 
among the valleys of the French Jura, we found it again. 
Along the edge of the Jura mountains, we saw two pictur- 
esque chateaux and after having a gorgeous climb of twenty- 
five hundred feet, we looked down upon a tiny, red-roofed 
village, Chadun. We stopped for tea at the Hotel de France, 
charmingly situated upon Lake Nantua. We were so curi- 
ous to try the crawfish which swam about in the rockery of 
the little Inn that we waited while our host and hostess fished 
out the inactive fish to throw away and the very much alive 

58 




NANTUA— La Colonne et le Lac 



ones for our repast. They call them escrivisse in France; 
when broiled a bright red, they reminded us of lobster, but 
such a disappointment! They had a curious mint taste that 
would take some time for us to cultivate, and unappreciative 
though it seemed, we left without finishing the dozen. 

A short distance from the Inn we found a church with 
a very old appearing door and facade. We looked into it 
and were much interested in the nave, the walls of which 
expand toward the top. The ceiling of the transcept is very 
high. Baedeker says it is the Eglise St. Michel of the ninth 
century and originally it belonged to an Abbey founded in 
the seventh century. 

By the Rhone once more and continuously climbing, 
we came to quite a lumber district alive with men working 
at the freshly cut wood. We made a necessary stop at Belle- 
garde, the French custom house, then climbed the mountain 
again and had a glorious view of the Alps, then over the 
drawbridges on either side of the Defile de l'Ecluse. This is 
in the nature of a fortification placed there by the Powers 
after they had made peace with Switzerland and France and 
acts as a safeguard along the road which marks the boundary 
line between the two countries. We learned what we had 
never known before, that there is a stretch ten miles wide of 
so-called neutral territory between France and Switzerland. 

We reached the Swiss Custom House at Chancy at six 
in the evening and entered Switzerland, following the Rhone 
where it has its beginning into the City of Geneva. The 
Hotel Beau-Rivage looked delightfully Swiss with its at- 
tractive, gaily painted walls, and the green aproned porters 
were so quick with their service, we were soon settled in most 
comfortable quarters. 



59 



Saturday, July 25th. 

The morning papers were full of the startling news of 
trouble between Austria and Servia. It seems that since the 
assassination of the Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand 
on June 28th by the crazy Servian fanatic, which we heard 
by wireless on the Imperator, Austria has been busy with 
plans for punishing Servia for this outrage. The culmina- 
tion of these plans was shown in the note delivered by the 
Austro-Hungarian government to Servia, July 23rd, the pur- 
port of which is that the accomplices in the murder must be 
punished by the Austro-Hungarian officials. Also all anti- 
Austrian propaganda must be suppressed, practically; the 
school children cannot be taught history in any way detri- 
mental to Austria. An answer to this note was demanded 
in twenty-four hours. Charlet tells us there is much un- 
easiness among the Swiss as to the outcome, should Servia 
not become quite subservient to the northern country. 

Notwithstanding an atmosphere of uneasiness about us 
and decided signs of darkening weather above, we boarded 
the little steamer "Evian" and started on a tour of Lac Le- 
man. We found the boat provided a delicious luncheon, 
after which we saw what we could, with so cloudy a sky, of 
the mountains French and Swiss on each side of us. We 
made a stop at Nyon and had a glimpse of a chateau pic- 
turesquely set upon a hill, then as the atmosphere thickened 
and shut out land about us, I took up Baedeker to learn some- 
thing of the history of Geneva. 

Way back in the first century B. C, Geneva, as it was 
then called, was a town of the Allobroges whose territory 
became a Roman province. In 443 it became the capitol of 
the Burgundian kingdom, with which it came into the pos- 

60 



session of the Franks in 534. At the end of three more cen- 
turies, it was annexed to the new Burgundian kingdom, and 
fell to the German Empire. In 1034 Emperor Conrad II 
caused himself to be crowned as King of Burgundy. Then 
during protracted conflicts for supremacy between the 
Counts of Geneva and the Counts, afterward Dukes of Sa- 
voy, the citizens succeeded in obtaining various privileges 
and in the midst of these discords dawned the Reformation 
zealously embraced by Geneva. 

Jean Calvin, a refugee from Paris, born at Noyon in 
1509, sought an asylum at Geneva and soon made his in- 
fluence felt in church and state. In 1538 he was banished, 
but on returning three years later, he obtained almost sov- 
ereign power and established a rigid ecclesiastical discipline. 
He faithfully practiced, himself, the austerity which he 
preached, but became tyrannical with others. Michael Ser- 
vetus, a Spanish Physician, and only a visitor at Geneva, 
had written against the doctrine of the Trinity and for this 
apparent sin, Calvin had him arrested and he was condemned 
to the stake and executed by the Great Council. 

The Geneva Academy was founded by Calvin in 1559. 
It became the leading Protestant school of Theology and al- 
though Calvin died five years later, his doctrine has been 
firmly rooted in Geneva ever since. 

Geneva claims also to be the birthplace of Rousseau, 
the writer, who, born in 1712, was the son of a watchmaker. 
His "Emile" and "Contrat Social" fared badly in his native 
town; they were condemned as destructive to religion and 
ordered burned by the hangman. Another man very worthy 
of mention was the Frenchman Charles Cousin who in 1587 
first introduced watchmaking, which ever since has been 
one of the flourishing trades of the city. 

61 



In 1814 Geneva joined the Swiss Confederation as the 
twenty-second Canton and in 1846 the Canton, under the 
leadership of James Fazy, overthrew the conservative gov- 
ernment and the next year a democratic constitution was 
adopted which has been substantially in force ever since. 

The sun was shining when we stopped at Evian-les- 
Bains and we left our boat to have a look at the town which 
supplies the delicious water we have asked for ever since our 
arrival on this side of the ocean. It is a small town with its 
attractive Quai lined with shady trees, and casino and bath 
house. We walked along the water side going towards 
Geneva until we came to one end of the Quai and found the 
statue of General Dupas, a native of Evian. We turned into 
the town and as we felt quite ready for a walk, decided we 
would go on foot to Thonon and meet the "Evian" on its trip 
back. The road was easy walking but it was rather tantaliz- 
ing to see so many enticing cafes offering tea and afternoon 
refreshments all along the lake, and be so pressed for time 
we could not stop. Our boat was due within two hours, and 
we had seven miles to go. We reached Thonon-les-Bains 
the site of a castle of the Savoy Duke, but we had no minutes 
to spare in sight-seeing, as our steamer was approaching and 
so was more rain. 

We arrived at the Beau-Rivage drenched, and delighted 
to have our dinner in our rooms most comfortably. During 
the evening the newsboys were crying more extras of the 
Austria-Servian situation. What a pity it must mean war! 



62 



Sunday, July 26th. 

At nine-thirty we started in the rain for far-famed 
Chamonix. Our winding road took us through the little 
town of Haut Savoie and Cluses where we saw what seemed 
quite a large school of Holorgerie (watchmaking). Charlet 
pointed out this place of learning with great pride at the in- 
dustry of his country. There were many fine water falls 
running down the mountain sides, and huge turbines mak- 
ing use of the abundance of water. New ones are contin- 
ually being put up, so that electricity has a chance to turn the 
water to greater advantage. In one place between two 
waterfalls, a profile face of rock was easily seen and we 
found it was called Henry IV from its resemblance to that 
King. Through the town of Sallanches and Le Fayet and 
along the river Arve with the magnificent Glacier des Bos- 
sons on our right, we drove into Chamonix and found the 
sun shining. We looked into the attractive little church 
where services had just been held, and in the church-yard 
found many tombstones showing the lives sacrificed by 
mountaineers in trying to reach the untraveled parts of Mt. 
Blanc. At the entrance of the valley is a bronze group, rep- 
resenting Balmat the famous guide pointing out to De 
Sassure his path found to lead to the top of the mountain. 

Chamonix itself is only twelve miles in area, lying at 
the foot of three gigantic mountain chains, peak upon peak 
of them. They are the Col de Baume, the chain of Brevent 
and Aiguilles Rouges, and rising colossally above all the 
others is Mont Blanc. 

While waiting for our luncheon at the new Hotel 
Chamonix Palace, we read of the charms and cures of this 



63 



invigorating climate of a thousand feet above the sea level. 
From the list of maladies made well by the air of Chamonix, 
one would think all one's physical troubles could be mended 
by a visit here. Hilda was so impressed that she thought it 
would be worth while to look up a school and plan for edu- 
cation and health for the Williams family in this mountain 
resort. 

At two we took the funicular for the Mer de Glace, an 
hour's ride full of wonders for Hilda and me but not wholly 
enjoyable for Ed at the start as he could not get used to leav- 
ing terra firma so far behind, never being able to feel com- 
fortable at great heights. The road was lovely with the 
greenest of bushes, trees, ferns, azaleas, butter-cups, forget- 
me-nots and daisies on one side, while to the left lay the val- 
ley below and the side of the mountain growing steeper as 
Chamonix grew smaller in size. Quite near the top were 
cows kept by the hotel, which provides for the tourists who 
stay over night. These animals had quite a muscular appear- 
ance from their exercise of hill climbing. 

At the station near the Mer de Glace we stopped and 
walked out upon a flat surface upon which the station and 
a stone wall were built. It had grown colder and we had a 
few minutes of snow on this 26th day of July. There were 
plenty of guides anxious to take us out upon the Mer de 
Glace, but we were content to watch the other tourists trying 
their luck at it. In fifteen minutes, our funicular was ready 
for the descent. Again in our auto on the return ride we 
had a good view of Mt. Blanc when the sun shone fully upon 
it for a few moments, but only a few, and the clouds closed 
over it again. 

Coming into Geneva we drove through the upper part 



64 



o 

X 

> 

o 

r 



to 




of the town. This is built in quite an up and down 
fashion and it was on one of the heights that we found a most 
interesting old Municipal building with a court decorated 
with frescoes of the 16th century. We climbed part way up 
an ancient roadway of cobble stones which ascends to the 
third floor of the building. It was somewhere in the build- 
ing that one of the Treaties of Geneva was signed, according 
to Charlet, who must be an authority on the history of his 
own country. 

Near-by is the Cathedral of St. Pierre, of Romanesque 
structure completed by Emperor Conrad II in 1034 an d re_ 
built in Gothic style in the twelfth-thirteenth centuries. In 
the Grand Rue, number forty, stands the house where Jean 
Jacques Rosseau was born in 1712. 

The papers say Servia agrees to all the demands of 
Austria-Hungary except that which stipulated Austro-Hun- 
garian officials should participate in the inquiry. The reply 
is rejected as insufficient. An important point is the fact 
that Russia is making it clear that she will not permit 
Austria-Hungary to make war upon Servia on a pretext. 



65 



Monday, July 27th. 

More disquieting news in the morning paper. Servia, 
told by Austria to give her answer in forty-eight hours, 
agreed to all the Austrian demands except that one which 
would have permitted government officials of the Dual mon- 
archy to take a predominant part in the punishment of those 
implicated in the murder of Franz Ferdinand. Even on this 
point the Serbs asked simply for further information, but 
Austria would not be satisfied with half-way measures. 

Charlet says the Germans he has met are especially con- 
cerned, wondering how their country will take this step of 
their Ally. 

We started off in a fine drizzling rain at eleven o'clock, 
driving along the north shore of Lac Leman. There were 
charming villas everywhere. At Nyon on the street corners 
were fountains with flowers growing from them, the bright 
colored geraniums and begonias appearing most attractive 
through the spray of water. There was an old chateau, the 
remains of the fortification of the town and from its terrace 
of plane trees we had a fine view. There were guns and 
relics of old columns and evidently parts of the castle of 
which we had only a glimpse, as Thursdays and Sundays 
only were visiting days. 

Out of Nyon we passed the house and property of Vic- 
tor Napoleon, son of Napoleon III, and later Charlet pointed 
out the site of a house supposed to be haunted, where no- 
body would live. Four Englishmen once tried one night of 
it together, but that one night was so filled with horrors of 
every description for each man that since then no attempt 
has been made to inhabit that house of ghosts. I have never, 



even at the seashore where brilliant colors abound, seen more 
gorgeous dahlias than on this road. 

Morge was a picturesque little town we passed through 
and there an old chateau had been turned into useful bar- 
racks. 

We arrived at Lausanne at noon and after lunch, though 
it still rained, we started up the hill to the Cathedral of Notre 
Dame. This Gothic building of 1235 with the castle over- 
shadowing the town below adds a large share to its pictur- 
esqueness. The town is built upon a slope of Mt. Jorat and 
the handsome Grand-Pont Bridge spans the Flon river. It 
was house-cleaning day in the Palace, which is the great 
show place of Lausanne, so as it was impossible to see the 
inside, we found a dry goods store in which we spent a very 
profitable hour. It seemed to be the Bon Marche of this 
town and I found the greatest variety of all sorts of handker- 
chiefs from seventy-five centimes up. 

At five o'clock we left the town, coming five minutes 
later, into Ouchy, another attractive resort and the town in 
which Byron stayed when he wrote his "Prisoner of Chil- 
lon." 

We drove over a most lovely Corniche Road to Vevey. 
The mountain upon our left was covered with terrace upon 
terrace of grape vines, stone walls separating the terraces. 
Then came a break in the green mountain side and we saw 
and heard a splendid waterfall rushing down its course. 

We passed the home of the man who built the Eiffel 
Tower, and on the edge of Vevey came to a splendid looking 
building in which the famous Nestle's Food is made. 



67 



From Vevey we reached Montreux at the extreme end 
of Lac Leman and went to the Montreux Palace Hotel. Be- 
fore dinner we found a fine walk along the lake, the air was 
fresh and delicious and it was a delightful time for walking, 
but the lake path turned into town and then there were shops 
with the most reasonable and best looking sweaters I have 
ever seen. We could not resist two sweater outfits for the 
children at home and returned to the Montreux Palace with 
our arms filled and our pockets lightened in proportion. 



68 



Tuesday, July 28th. 

Left the hotel at nine-twenty enroute for Territet, there 
most ancient and picturesque, built upon an isolated rock 
stood the "Castle of Chillon." We found a large party of 
American tourists had started ahead of us and were peer- 
ing into every nook and corner to find the spot where the 
"Prisoner" dwelt and where Mary first appeared. We heard, 
"This must be the door where Mary came in," so it was ap- 
parent that these sightseers were happy in believing in the 
reality of Byron's poem, though Baedecker says there is no 
connection between that and the actual circumstances which 
occurred there. Our French guide, if I understood him 
rightly, told of the great sufferings of the brave Bonivard 
imprisoned in the dungeon of Chillon for six years by the 
Duke of Savoy. The duke, having attacked the republic of 
Geneva, Bonivard energetically took up its cause and was 
imprisoned, escaped and was in 1530 captured again and 
shut up in Chillon for six long years. 

We started up the Pass of Les Mottets; on our left as 
we began our ascent we saw a splendid large sanitarium for 
tubercular patients, and if gorgeous scenery could be a part 
of the cure of those patients, half their troubles would be 
mended. It was a glorious sight, the Dent du Midi loomed 
up before us, Les Diablerets, the Tete Ronde and Culant 
all ranging from three thousand feet or over. Picturesque 
brown roofed chalets were dotted here and there upon the 
mountain side and Charlet explained the reason so many of 
them appeared closed. The mountaineer, if he is prosperous 
enough to afford it, has three chalets in his possession, so 
that as the cold weather comes on he goes from his summer 
home above to his more sheltered winter house below ; then 



69 



there is the half-way chalet for the in-between season, so the 
reason for the exits from the higher houses to the half-way 
in this midsummer month must be on account of the unu- 
sually cool summer we are having. 

We stopped to water our machine at Le Sepey, twenty- 
five hundred feet up and it was so cold it seemed as if the 
rain, which had begun again, would surely turn to snow. 
Then the Pillon Pass began and out came the sun, so 
with the snow-capped mountains above, fields of wheat, firs 
and pines edging our road, every imaginable color of wild 
flower sprinkled about, and the chalets above and below us, 
each with its attractive vegetable garden, we had a morning 
of a never-to-be-forgotten picture. "Panorama," Charlet 
would shout to us, as he waved his arms every time an ex- 
pansive view opened before us. 

Our descent to Chateau D'Oex was made by noon and 
in its valley we found a real treasure in the Hotel Berthod, 
a rather primitive house, but comfortable and in good taste, 
and after a very nice luncheon, we felt we would like to 
linger there for weeks, but were off again at one-forty-five. 
Passed through quite a lumber district and Rougemont, one 
of the last of the French Swiss Villages. The German 
Swiss chalets seemed to me a little more prosperous in ap- 
pearance, we saw more flowers than ever in their gardens 
and window boxes were spilling over with geraniums and 
petunias. As for the children, we noticed decidedly more 
in each village and such rosy-cheeked, pretty smiling faces, 
always waving their hands and so bent on being cordial that 
often when they heard the motor, though their backs were 
to us, they would start their salute. 

Saanen was a most picturesque little village. We took 



70 



2 

2 
z 
Q 

z 

d 
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another quite steep climb after leaving it and came next 
through Zweisimmen, a town where matches are made, 
through Simmenthal, along the shores of its river, then the 
beautiful lake Thun, along its shore to Thun. Here we were 
met by an official who told us, according to the law, that we 
would have to take thirty-four minutes for about twelve kilo- 
meters. They gave us a card with the hour stamped on it 
and we were compelled to go slowly enough to use up the 
time required before presenting the card at the next control. 
This gave us ample time to see the beauty of the lake and as 
we were passing through the last of five rocky tunnels, we 
heard an attractive musical note and found it was a Swiss 
who was furnishing entertainment for us with a long, wood- 
en, flute-like instrument and anxiously waiting for our cen- 
times, which of course he received. 

Arriving at Interlaken, we stopped at the Victoria 
Jungfrau Hotel, took a walk before dinner and found a 
square full of churches of all denominations. 



71 



Wednesday, July 29th. 

Rain, all morning, with many clouds and hardly a 
glimpse of the Jungfrau. At two o'clock we started again 
in the automobile for Grindelwald where, after a lovely ride, 
I found to my amazement that the little village which I 
went to seventeen years ago, with one restaurant, had grown 
to a resort of hotels and pensions and dozens of souvenir 
shops. We left the auto and started on foot for the Blue 
Grotto of the Grindewald Glacier. Up to a neat little half- 
way house, we found a Swiss woman who lives there alone 
and who assured us the rest of the climb was easy, but Ed 
was already feeling the height and decided to smoke his pipe 
on a secure footing, so after promising him to be back in 
thirty minutes, Hilda and I started. I soon met my Water- 
loo, not in climbing but in looking back at one of the curves 
where we seemed to be on the edge of nothing. I called Hil- 
da back and partly slid down the side, which really terrified 
me. To make up for her parents' lack of nerve, it seemed 
necessary to look for some lesser feat to lessen the disap- 
pointment of the child, who had the courage to go anywhere, 
and we soon found it in the Liitschine gorge. We walked 
along a stone pavement at the bottom of the gorge and saw 
the water madly rushing over the stones below us and felt 
so much moisture from cracks in the rocks above us that 
many tourists kept up their umbrellas until the gorge visit 
was over. The sun was doing its best now and we had a 
splendid view of the Jungfrau and the Eagle. 



72 




LUTSCHINENSCHLUCHT— Grindelwald 



Thursday, July 30th. 

Interlaken. Beautiful day. We shopped in the morn- 
ing and bought some of the attractive Swiss hatpins with 
heads of edelweiss, narcissus and violets. Lunched at the 
Victoria and left at one-fifty. Our way was by part of the 
river Aare, then by Lake Brienz and through Brienz, a curi- 
ous little village which ran for two miles along one street. 
More Alpine views and very obvious marks of a land slide to 
the right of us which took place two years ago, covering 
seven chalets full of people in a night. The rocks on our left 
for a space had unusual circular streaks different from any 
we had seen before. 

Up the Briinig Pass we drove, reaching its summit at 
three. There again our time was taken as at Thun and we 
were given two hours to run thirty-five kilometres. This 
pass was really a steeper climb than the Pillon; it is thirty- 
six hundred feet high. We walked down the mountain to 
the village of Lungern while three little German girls of the 
Goethe family, whom we found picking strawberries, had 
their first ride in an auto with Charlet, causing much com- 
ment in their village. In this town every child from six years 
up was knitting her stockings and with her steel needles 
going marvelously fast, we found them climbing up hill or 
chatting with their friends, the needles always busy. 

Sarnen was our next lake with the town of Sarnen on 
its edge, and then Unterseen on an arm of Lake Lucerne. 
We arrived at Lucerne at five-thirty and found the Tivoli, a 
pension hotel, and unusually nice with one of the most at- 
tractive verandas for its restaurant I have seen. Besides ex- 
traordinary large red geraniums in boxes on its railings, 



73 



there were sweet peas of all colors climbing up to the boxes. 
Rode to the Lion of Lucerne, a most beautiful tribute to the 
loyalty of the Swiss guards who lost their lives in defense of 
the French queen, Marie Antoinette, whom they served as 
palace guards. The Glacier Garden adjoining had some 
interesting examples of the effects of the ice action on rocks. 
We finished the day by walking through the labyrinth of 
the Alhambra, a maze of gaudy color and a dreadful anti- 
climax after the masterpiece of Thorwaldsen. 



74 



Friday, July 31st. 

Beautiful day. We found such good stores of embroid- 
ered linen in Lucerne that we shopped until eleven, then 
started enroute for Constance. 

Rows of attractive farm houses bordered our road until 
we joined the lake again and came to Kiissnacht at its end. 
Up a hill and through a lovely stretch of plane trees, we de- 
scended to Lake Zug, long and narrow. At its farther end 
Charlet pointed to a field which had been the battle scene of 
a fight between the Austrians and the Swiss and on a tiny 
island in the lake we could see a cross, the memorial to some 
hero of that encounter. 

A few moments later we were brought face to face with 
the reality of present day war. On a narrow strip of road by 
the lakeside we passed a troop of Swiss cavalry and infantry 
on their way to the frontier, splendid looking men, young 
and with healthy complexions, so characteristic of the 
Swiss. They were chatting and joking among themselves 
quite as if they were off for a day's outing instead of the prob- 
ability of fighting for their lives and their native land. 

In this part of the country cider is quite a product and 
the attractive little chalets were surrounded with apple trees. 
The houses themselves looked prosperous and were adorned 
with red geraniums. Each one had its neat wood pile at its 
side in preparation for the winter. At the top of another 
hill we had a fine view of Lake Zurich, arriving in the town 
at one o'clock. 

We found the Hotel Baur au Lac situated quite like 
some of the French chateaux we have seen, over the river 



75 



which flows from Lake Zurich, and by the river side upon a 
terrace we were given a delicious luncheon. 

After our usual hour for the mid-day meal, we looked 
for the car and found Charlet for once not able to start his 
engine. Our spring had broken during the morning and 
although it was not apparent to any of us, interfered incon- 
veniently with the crank. We were not at all sorry to have to 
spend the night at this very nice hotel where we were given 
two bed rooms, one a regular old-fashioned parlor. Ed 
seemed really relieved, for he thinks the war scare serious. 
The conservative London Times says that Austria, too im- 
pulsive, has quarreled with Servia, that she has drawn Ger- 
many into more than the latter bargained for, that if Ger- 
many attacks the French frontier, she would surely side ac- 
cording to the Triple Alliance with her sister country and 
protect her. Germany has given Russia twenty-four hours 
to decide what her course will be. It is plain to see there is 
a feeling of unrest among the hotel guests, the proprietor 
and concierge have been pestered with all sorts of anxious 
questions the entire day; guests are going and more are com- 
ing in from Germany. We put in a long distance call to 
Constance to find if there was a message from our friend in 
Berlin whom we were expecting to meet in Germany. 

Meanwhile it was such a warm, glorious day, Hilda and 
I were much tempted to try the lake. The bath-house was 
three-quarters of a mile from the hotel so we walked there 
and had a delicious swim among all German speaking 
women and children. The bathing costumes were as varied 
as any collection I have ever seen and not quite the North 
Shore style we are accustomed to, more like mother hubbards 
and swing clears for the mothers and night robes or gingham 
dresses for the little girls. 

76 



N 

o 

X 




Returning to the hotel we heard that there was a letter 
for us at Constance, it would be mailed to us that evening as 
probably no more trains would come through from Ger- 
many. 

The terrace restaurant of noon has gone, the orchestra, 
too; the waiters have been called to protect their border-land 
and such a mixture of all nations as assembled together for 
the evening meal ! The restaurant tables had been put away, 
and our dinner was served at long tables, table d'hote. We 
passed things to each other and wondered what the next step 
would be. 



77 



Saturday, August 1st. 

The morning was beautiful, but as the sun grew 
brighter the afternoon became really hot while the atmos- 
phere of uneasiness about Zurich increased in the same pro- 
portion. 

First of all the hotel would not accept our paper money 
for breakfast, so that meal was charged for the time being. 
Ed hardly waited to finish his breakfast in his anxiety to get 
to the bank, and Hilda, quite on the alert for more excite- 
ment, went too. Every bank was closed, but Cook's, equal 
to the emergency, gave us a hundred francs in gold and 
silver. 

By noon our hotel had settled down systematically and 
without any panicky signs to a necessarily new set of regu- 
lations. Twenty German waiters had already left for their 
country, the elevator boys were expecting to leave at any 
time. Service in every respect had to be curtailed, so we 
were asked to be as considerate as possible in the use of 
towels and linen. The elevator would run only through the 
busiest hours and we were all asked to come to our meals at 
the same time. 

Next to me at the long luncheon table was a lady who 
told me the worst, but what we had expected since last even- 
ing's news, that Germany — reckless, aggressive, head of the 
Teutons, had declared war upon Russia. This American 
had been planning with her friend to stay in Switzerland un- 
til November, but now although carrying a large letter of 
credit, she could only procure four pounds in Zurich this 
morning, so she was giving up all thought of her attractive 
rooms engaged at a pension in Lucerne and was planning 



78 



to take the first train this afternoon for that city, expecting 
to look for rooms at eight francs a day, then go to Geneva 
as soon as possible in hopes of catching a steamer for 
America. Poor woman! I should like to have offered to 
help them along somehow with our Hotchkiss, but Ed re- 
minded me we could not count with any certainty on again 
using that French car with its Swiss driver. 

After luncheon we walked to the office of the American 
Consul, not feeling we should afford the luxury of a taxi nor 
even a sous for the "extras" which were being called at every 
corner. It seemed a month since yesterday morning when 
I was spending my francs with such keen pleasure over the 
linens of Lucerne and now felt no certainty at all of covering 
the many miles of railroad to Paris. 

Every store with the exception of the smallest shops had 
pulled its shutters tight and the banks all appeared to be 
closed as if for a long holiday. The office of our Consul was 
overflowing with Americans, asking many questions, all 
leading to the same problem, "What shall we do?" to which 
the poor, harrassed representative of our country had but one 
reply which seemed to safely cover a multitude of perplexi- 
ties. "If you have a passport you can travel without trouble ; 
if not, go to Berne and apply for one and do it at once," for 
he had heard that in all likelihood, for the next few days, 
there would be no trains out of Switzerland. 

At the station we found crowds, nobody being allowed 
to enter without a ticket to show. We had none, but every 
kind person who was lucky enough to be blest with a pass 
of any sort was ready to help his neighbor, and so it happened 
that an American who had a Cook's pass, took Ed in with 
him while Hilda and I waited outside, a part of scores of 



79 



Americans, each telling their situation to one another and 
wondering if their paper money would be honored. 

The result of Ed's railroad expedition was that a train 
was due to leave the city for Paris at nine-forty this evening, 
and that we might be able to buy sleeping apartments later, 
but in order to do so, Ed would have to go back again at four 
o'clock and stand in line. We found Charlet in the garage 
still working on the broken spring ; one of the workmen who 
had been helping him had been called to join his army and 
had actually had to drop his tools and run. Charlet had 
heard that the petrol in Switzerland had been called into 
requisition for the army, so even were his machine in good 
shape now, he could not run it far without the petrol. Also, 
he was Swiss born and would probably not find it easy to 
leave the country in its present state, so, hard as it was, and 
to me it seemed like actually deserting the guide who had 
given us such comfort and pleasure, there was no question 
about it, we had to part, leaving Charlet to go to Berne for 
his passport, while we risked the trip without one. 

Returning to the hotel for a moment, Ed met a man who 
had gone to America from Switzerland fifteen years ago but 
had not taken out naturalization papers. He was visiting 
here with his automobile and both he and his machine had 
been pressed into service. 

Hilda and I spent the remainder of the afternoon in 
packing, while Ed returned to the station. Fortunately he 
found a man from Cook's who was our good angel, and it 
was due to his untiring persistency that finally our tickets 
and sleeping accommodations were bought and paid for. 
Cook's had refused in the morning to give us any more 
money but they were willing to sell us the tickets and charge 



80 



the value of them on our letter of credit. We checked our 
automobile trunk to London. Ed called the train a "per- 
haps" train. Perhaps there would be a train through from 
Austria, perhaps there would be a sleeper on it, perhaps this 
sleeper would not join it until it reached Basle and perhaps 
we could get something on it. It was a hard decision to make 
because there was no way of knowing until we saw the thing 
through, whether we were wise in leaving the hotel where 
we were comfortable and trying to get out of the city. 

For dinner more travelers had arrived, among them the 
C.'s who had come from Munich, looking for safety and 
quiet and were appalled to find the state of things that ex- 
isted in Zurich. In spite of the unfavorable conditions the 
hotel people show their patriotism this evening. On the 
long dining tables were large ships made of some candied 
pastry with the Swiss flag flying, labeled August first. We 
were told this was in celebration of the five hundredth anni- 
versary of the Swiss Republic. We thought it very plucky of 
these people, doing their best to commemorate the occasion, 
though short of hands, and with the prospect of a scarcity 
of provisions, as Switzerland is quite dependent upon other 
countries for a large part of her food supplies. 

The hotel motor took us to the station, Charlet going 
along to see us off, and the Cook man met us with our tickets. 
The crowd was tremendous, soldiers everywhere, and after 
much pushing and shoving by ourselves and the crowd, we 
reached our train and were off at nine-forty. Shortly after 
eleven we reached Basle and left the train, wondering 
whether we would find the other train for Paris and whether 
our sleeping car would be on it. Sure enough at eleven- 
thirty the other train was ready to go and had a sleeper, but, 
alas, it was not ours. Then there was more of the "perhaps." 



81 



Perhaps another section would go and perhaps the sleeper 
would be on it. This station, too, was full of people and 
soldiers. Basle is a border town and we understood the sta- 
tion was only two or three blocks away from the German 
line. 

About one-thirty another train had pulled in and we 
found our two compartments ready for us. We boarded it 
and went to bed, looking forward to arrival in Paris some 
time during the morning, and London tomorrow evening or 
the next morning. 



82 



Sunday, August 2nd. 

At three-thirty I awoke to find we were standing still at 
the border town of Delle, and crowds of people were walking 
back and forth on the station platform. I watched the day- 
light come and at six-thirty dressed and, informed by the 
porter that there was something to eat at the buffet station, 
started forth, leaving Hilda and Ed still sound asleep. 
Hundreds of people must have already been there, and 
though I saw pieces of bread and bottles of wine on the 
counter, there was so much of cafe au hit and wine running 
from the bare tables to the floors, where, in the rush it had 
been spilled, it was all in such a smelly state of mess and dirt 
that my appetite grew small as I looked about. I saw soldiers 
walking back into the town and followed. The first cafe 
they turned into did not look prepossessing, but at the next, 
full of soldiers, I found the hostess interested in my wants, 
as apparently, I was the only woman who had tried her 
restaurant. I went into the kitchen where her children stood 
about, their big eyes full of wonder at the crowds of hungry 
people and, I suppose, anxious lest the soldiers would leave 
nothing for them. The mother cut me four slices of dark 
bread, a piece of cheese and sold me a cake of chocolate and 
a bottle of Vichy. I asked for meat, not feeling any certainty 
of a dining car, but the woman showed me her only meat — 
one small piece of ham, and in pathetic French explained 
that with the bordering countries at war, their chance of pro- 
visions, aside from dairy products, was very small. Armed 
with my purchases, I went back to the train and found Hilda 
dressed, the weary Ed still sleeping. We washed at the sta- 
tion pump as the others were doing and I showed Hilda the 
station restaurant, one sight of which was enough for her. 

83 



Soon Ed awoke and we all ate our breakfast in the car, 
then walked up and down and watched the crowds. The 
poor Italians! I felt so sorry for them, they could not go 
across the French frontier on our train so they had to get out 
and with their baggage on their backs, many women and 
children had to foot it to some place nearer the Italian fron- 
tier where they could cross into their native land. 

Just before we finally pulled out of the station, I heard 
a Frenchman, excitedly asking a Frenchwoman if she could 
explain, in English, to an American lady who, it seems had 
lost her friend, that the Mayor of the town wished to bury 
the body rather than have it carried away. I could see the 
poor woman looking most distressed and was wondering 
what I could do for her when the signal for leaving was 
given; we had to hurry to our seats and at nine o'clock were 
actually on our way, leaving this distressed American 
woman behind. It was sad to be compelled to desert her. It 
was distressing, too, to see the women with small babies in 
the third class compartments; they had no place upon which 
to lay their heads all night and might have to go through part 
of another night in the same uncomfortable way; but most 
tragic of all was the sight of the swarms of soldiers every- 
where, young men, the flower of the country, who were 
leaving their families and all, perhaps, never to return. 

The best part of our day was the hour in the dining car 
where we had a real luncheon of three courses, served to the 
entire car full of people by two waiters, one of whom spilled 
a little of everything en route, but in spite of this loss, we had 
a great plenty, which was fortunate as our dinner consisted 
of a hard boiled egg apiece and one meat pastry pie between 
us. This food was snatched up from a station where we 
stopped five minutes and I only hope that others fared as well 

84 



as we did, though I am afraid the woman at the buffet stand 
did not, for we were told that men fairly grabbed food from 
her counters and ran back to the train without stopping to 
pay. Always as soon as we stopped for any length of time, 
both men and women ran with bottles to the nearest station 
pump to put in a water supply. 

At Belfort, among crowds of French soldiers, we saw 
about a dozen carried upon litters and others limping and 
leaning upon the shoulders of their comrades, evidently the 
first of the wounded in a skirmish with the Germans. Amidst 
the rush and excitement at this station, an Englishman, calm 
and unperturbed, tried to negotiate with the conductor for 
passage on our car. The conductor gesticulated violently 
and made it quite plain that there was not an extra seat to be 
had, but the Englishman, nothing daunted, remarked in a 
mixture of his own language and a French drawl that the 
English had made themselves the best friends of the French, 
and without more ado he boarded our car. Ed came to the 
rescue and offered his room and berth to the new passenger, 
for which the Englishman thanked him and remarked with 
great complacency, "I say, you've not had a shave this morn- 
ing, have you?" He proved a quite enlivening addition to 
our car as he was full of conversation — too much so for the 
fatigued porter, who grew gradually indifferent to his "Que 
pensez vous de la Guerre?" and "Pour quot arretons nous 
ici?" and gave up all attempts at answering what Hilda 
called "foolish questions." 

I asked the porter at about eleven o'clock if he did not 
think it a good idea to make up our berths, but apparently 
he was short of bed linen, for he gave me the most decided 
answer he had yet given any of us, and that was quite nega- 
tive. All day long, poor man, he had been asked in French, 

85 



German and English, when we would reach Paris. He had 
been on duty for over twenty-four hours, with no chance for 
relief nor one square meal. As far as I could see, his only 
food was the scraps of our sumptuous fare which we shared 
with him. His only answer to all our questions was "Mobi- 
lization!' Three times the train seemed to have crashed into 
something and every head went out of the window, our first 
natural thought being dynamited by the Germans. At the 
first crash I needed more of an assuring answer than that oft 
repeated "Mobilization!' Hilda was asleep in one chair and 
Ed in another, so I turned to a Frenchman who explained 
the situation to me so satisfactorily that when another shock 
came and the tumblers on our table broke and added to the 
noise, and Hilda and Ed, of course, awoke, I was quite ready 
to assure them that, due to our very heavy train of sixteen 
compartment cars, when we turned a curve, the cars in the 
rear in catching up with the forward ones moved with such 
jerks that a clumsy bumping was the result. 

Our friend the Englishman was sleeping the sleep of the 
unconcerned in Ed's berth when this last jar awoke him, 
whereupon he complained to two men outside that their con- 
versation disturbed his slumber. 



86 



Monday, August 3rd. 

Warm and sunny. At four o'clock I watched dawn ap- 
pear, thankful the weary night was over. It was a still, calm 
morning which shed its early light over the meadows full of 
golden wheat, much of it uncut for lack of labourers who 
have had to drop the scythe and arm themselves with the 
sword. I do hope reapers may be found, for this year's har- 
vest has the appearance of a plentiful one and France will 
need it for her army. 

The little towns seemed asleep as if war had not yet en- 
tered into their homes. At one small station where we 
stopped for a few moments, I saw a French dragoon, looking 
really gorgeous in his fine uniform and high hat with horse- 
hair plume. He stopped at a house, knocked quietly and 
waited until a night-capped woman appeared at the upper 
window ; he evidently asked for a bed in which to rest, and 
his answer must have been, there was not a vacant one, for I 
saw him, just as our train started, knocking at the next house, 
and I could only hope he had better luck. 

It was rather amusing after hearing the discussions of 
our fellow passengers as to what Paris hotel would consider 
us as occupants at the hour of two or three in the morning, 
to arrive at the quite respectable hour of eight o'clock. It 
was rather a joke, too, on the Englishman who had suggested 
to us to have our luggage ready at a window through which 
the "facteur" would seize it, for him to find no "facteur" 
waiting. But such a Paris! It seemed inconceivable that 
so great a change could have taken place in our two weeks' 
absence. The city is fairly turned up side down. We had 
arrived at the Gare de l'Est and not one porter to relieve us 



87 



of our four bags. We had crossed the street before we saw 
any signs of a porter and then one wholly unenthusiastic 
man did consent to handle our bags and volunteered the in- 
formation that the near-by Gare du Nord, to which we were 
bound, was being used only for military purposes and we 
would have to take our train from the Gare St. Lazare, way 
across the city; but how were we to get there? We did not 
know the way and the porter's efforts to find us a cab were 
quite futile. Every taxi was rushed about at a break-neck 
speed full of soldiers or officials having to do with the army, 
and instead of the customary horse cabs waiting anxiously 
for a passenger, they were so apparently engaged for the day 
that they did not even stop to turn back their "libre" signs. 
There was no tram running today so we gave a fee to our 
man for having done nothing but hold our bags for five 
minutes, and started on foot, having little idea as to the direc- 
tion of our station. It proved a circuitous route so we 
stopped often to inquire the way. The simple question as 
to our course brought forth a half dozen responses from as 
many people who excitedly collected about us, eager to help 
but with such a volley of French I had to ask them to speak 
more slowly. Our destination almost reached and our arms 
tired with the weight of bags, we met an empty horse cab 
and rode the remaining distance. 

At the station we had to show our London tickets to be 
allowed to enter — and such a crowd ! We found one empty 
corner near a buffet where we had a breakfast of chocolate 
and rolls. Ed left us here, telling us to make the most of the 
luxury of a chair while he went to inquire about trains for 
London. There was so much uncertainty apparent in the 
crowds which thronged the station that while waiting for 
him, I walked about looking for a telephone booth, thinking 



to call up our former Hotel de Meurice and see if they could 
take care of us if it should turn out to be necessary for us to 
remain in Paris over night. While doing this, I noticed a pas- 
sageway with the sign "Terminal Hotel." This proved to be 
of the greatest good fortune as I walked through into the ho- 
tel resolved to take any accommodations that were available. 
The proprietor seemed anxious to be accommodating and 
although he had only one double room vacant, said he could 
easily put in an extra cot, so immediately I engaged the room, 
and a comfort it indeed proved to be! I went back to the 
station where I had left Hilda and found Ed had returned. 
He had learned that a train was to be sent to Havre at three- 
thirty the next morning to take passengers to the steamer La 
France which had postponed its sailing from the previous 
Saturday. His instructions were that ticket window number 
four would be opened at twelve o'clock and that he had bet- 
ter get in line for that. He first went with us to look at the 
room I engaged and approved of what had been done. 
Leaving us there, Hilda and I were soon asleep, but no such 
luck for Ed. He took only a sandwich and then went to the 
ticket line. At eleven o'clock the would-be travellers were 
all told to come and line up along the street outside the door. 
This they did, and Ed stood there for about five hours. It 
proved merely to be a ruse on the part of the station officials 
to get the crowd out of the station, and at six o'clock in the 
evening, the people were notified that the window was not 
to be opened at all and that they should all disperse. 

In the meantime Ed had met Dr. Graham Taylor of 
Chicago, who introduced to him Bishop Hamilton of Bos- 
ton and two or three other clergymen who together formed 
part of the American delegation to the International Church 
Peace Conference which was to have opened this week in 
Constance. 



About four o'clock Ed gave up the idea of standing 
in the line longer and decided to go to the American Em- 
bassy to see what he could learn there. While Ed did not 
wish to obtrude our own affairs upon Ambassador Herrick, 
when he must be so busy and when there must be so many 
cases that were much more distressing, he nevertheless wrote 
on one of his cards that he was staying at the Grand Terminal 
Hotel with his wife and daughter and might have to ask him 
for assistance later. Upon arriving at the Embassy, he 
learned that it was necessary for all Americans to provide 
themselves with passports and that the French Government 
had extended, for two or three days, the time in which they 
might procure them. He was given a numbered card indi- 
cating his turn to go through the office formalities and was 
told that he should come back with the card about eleven 
o'clock the next day. Ambassador Herrick passed where 
he was standing and he had opportunity merely to say "How- 
do-you-do" and to ask him to look at the card when he had 
leisure to do so. 

The evening News says that the Germans are crossing 
into Luxembourg, having violated the neutrality of Belgium. 
They gave that country twenty-four hours in which to de- 
cide if she would allow them to use her territory for their 
troops, and upon her indignant refusal, their army has 
started an attack upon her frontier. Great excitement in 
this city ! The French are frantic at this outrage and all this 
evening the streets are full of " La Guerre a Berlin' and 
"Vive la France!" It seems that today France made upon 
Germany her actual declaration of war. England is plainly 
attempting to avoid the necessity of declaring war, but an- 
nounces that she will protect the French sea ports from at- 
tack. 



90 



Tired as I was, there was so much excitement on the 
streets that I could hardly keep away from the window. In 
the afternoon we had seen a mob attack a taxi driver and push 
his cab down the street out of sight. In the evening I had 
no sooner gone to bed than I heard the angry murmur of a 
crowd and from the window saw the same occurrence again 
and watched the crowd until they were out of sight. Un- 
doubtedly the drivers were Germans. Poor creatures, they 
will not have a comfortable time in the Paris of today. 

Finally I went to sleep with the strains of the Marseil- 
laise in my ears and dreamed I had gone with the French to 
the relief of the Belgians. 



91 



Tuesday, August 4th. 

We awoke to the sound of the French National Airs and 
from our window saw hundreds of men marching along the 
streets, reservists who had not yet received their uniforms, 
with wives and children trudging by their sides and helping 
to carry their queer shaped bags so quickly improvised from 
necessity. The sight of those responsible and determined 
looking men who showed no sign of sadness but a steadfast 
purpose to win for their country, moved me as no full dress 
parade could. There seems to be such a certainty as to the 
justice of their cause, no sane person could doubt it. 

With breakfast came the news which France has been 
waiting for ; the waiter who served us was jubilant over its 
announcement and I don't wonder. Today England de- 
clares war against the Teutonic Alliance and definitely binds 
herself to the support of France and Belgium. 

Hilda and I spent the morning in our room which we 
turned into a laundry and washed clothes, feeling the want 
of the extra clean linen which we had not carried in our bags, 
thinking when we left Switzerland, that we would be in Lon- 
don Sunday, and back to the things in our trunks. 

Ed started forth again and made an attempt to get 
berths, second or third class, or anything possible on the 
La France sailing tomorrow, but there was not a berth 
left. He met a fortunate Clevelander who had been able to 
get a reservation on the La France and then stood in line for 
three hours in order to buy his train ticket. At Cook's Ed 
was given forty dollars in gold, paying a premium of five 
dollars to get it. Morgan Harjes, although most obliging 
and helpful in every way, could only spare us paper money. 

92 



Every other bank is closed, even the large Credit Lyonnais. 
The first use our gold was put to was the payment of a cable 
to our family in Gloucester. We had waited, on account of 
the necessity of change, for no paper money was accepted 
for messages, nor were codes allowed. The cost was eight 
francs. 

At eleven, Ed went to the Embassy as instructed the day 
before. He met on the sidewalk outside, Mr. D., a 
Cleveland friend who had been living in Paris and who 
agreed to wait for him until he could get his passport and 
instructions. Mr. Herrick saw him in the crowd and invited 
him into his office. He was greatly impressed with the stu- 
pendous job on the shoulders of the Ambassador and his 
staff. In addition to the crowds of Americans who needed 
to be cared for, there was the regular and extra business of 
the Embassy, and on top of all this, the Austrian and Ger- 
man Governments had, on the withdrawal of their own am- 
bassadors, placed their interests in care of the representative 
of the American Government. 

Mr. Herrick thought that the wisest thing to do for those 
who had no important engagements or early sailing dates 
was to stay quietly for a while in Paris. His officials had told 
Ed that it would be necessary to go to the Police Commis- 
saire in the Arrondissement in which we were staying and 
get from him a Permit de Sejour, if we were going to stay in 
Paris, or, a Laisser d' Alter if we wanted to leave the city. 
This, Mr. Herrick advised promptly doing. He said he had 
been communicating with the American Government to see 
if they could not send a naval vessel or army transport over 
to help get the Americans home. One of his great problems 
was to furnish funds to those who needed them, including 
all of us. The school teacher or stenographer, who had come 

93 



over with moderate funds and spent them all in the expecta- 
tion that their vacation was over and they were to sail, were 
no worse off than the people who carried large letters of 
credit. No one could get funds for a few days. 

Mr. Herrick asked Ed if he would like to work on the 
Committee which was being formed, which Ed said he would 
gladly do after his family were settled with some security, 
unless in the meantime he was able to get across to London. 
Meanwhile he referred him to Mr. D., who was awaiting him 
outside, and who proved to be just the man for Embassy 
work. 

While waiting in the office before his conversation with 
Mr. Herrick, Ed found the crowd very interesting. He saw 
one young woman of not more than thirty, who had been 
escorting a party of young American girls of about sixteen 
to eighteen years of age on a European trip. They had got 
back as far as Paris, had their return tickets, expecting to 
sail from Cherbourg on a German boat next Saturday and 
now did not know when they could get away ; without funds, 
without means of cabling home, without any knowledge of 
the immediate future, the distress of the young woman re- 
sponsible for all of these girls may well be imagined. 

We all lunched as economically as possible at the hotel, 
then started for the office of the Police. The crowd before 
its doors was as great as ever, and Hilda and I deciding we 
were not helping Ed nor the crowd by adding our presence, 
walked about the neighborhood. On the Rue de Clichy we 
saw the remnants of two stores of German proprietorship ; 
there were only a few fragments of broken glass to show 
where the windows had been left by the enraged French. At 
a street corner there was another controversy between a cab 



94 



driver and the occupant of the taxi, and a crowd was already 
collecting. The driver was apparently trying to make the 
most of the scarcity of cab service and asking an exorbitant 
rate, but the crowd took the part of the passenger and the 
driver made a hasty retreat. 

Finding Ed still before the Police office, Hilda and I 
were anxious to have another glimpse of the Tuileries and 
our familiar haunts, so we walked towards the river, passing 
through street after street of closed shops. Upon many were 
the words "Pour cause de mobilization." At the meat and 
grocery stores, signs announced that their doors would be 
opened at three o'clock, and women with their market bas- 
kets, their children and dogs, stood patiently in line waiting 
to buy. 

At the Place Vendome we found the Hotels du Rhin 
and Ritz closed. The former is the French name for the 
Rhine. Evidently, fearing a mob attack, the white letters of 
the name had been painted out. We could see very faintly 
where they were. The Rue de Rivoli did not at all look its 
{part. Instead of finding the smiling shop keepers standing 
at the door step, always alert and ready for our trade, most of 
the doors were closed and the shutters drawn; while in the 
few that were open, the owners looked as if they had before 
them a more serious business than that of feeding and dress- 
ing the tourists in this general reorganization of life and 
its industries. 

We found at our attractive Hotel Meurice only one of 
the attendants whom we had known. The hotel was closing 
and this porter was superintending the last moving van. He 
told us that one hundred and twenty-six of the kitchen work- 
ers had gone to the front and he, himself, was off the next 
day and he spoke as if he were going off on a holiday, with 

95 



the same calm cheerfulness that impressed me so in the Swiss. 
One hears much of the pity of losing the best of one's coun- 
try, the educated and cultured, who must go forth and fight 
at the call to arms, but my heart aches for the waiter, the 
efficient, faithful man who has given his years to the drudg- 
ery and service of the hotel guests, knowing few of the com- 
forts of life. He has spent his efforts tirelessly in waiting 
upon the wants of others, and with anything but the training 
needed for the army, marches and camp, he drops his apron 
and joins the ranks. 

At the Rue de Rivoli entrance of the Meurice, the glass 
had been knocked out from the doors. The Meurice man- 
ager was a German, which accounted for that demonstra- 
tion. A German on the Rue de Castiglione was killed last 
evening, but the Government had dealt with the mobs 
promptly and we saw the white paper announcements upon 
the walls of the Tuileries gardens which show that we are 
living under martial law. Cafes and restaurants must close 
at nine o'clock, mob demonstration will be severely pun- 
ished, there must be no singing in the streets, and cab drivers 
charging more than ordinary tariff rate will be subject to im- 
prisonment. 

We sat in the gardens and watched the few families who 
had come to their usual place of recreation. There was such 
a marked lack of activity among the mothers and nurses 
whose fingers are ordinarily so busy with the mending 
basket. The children's play did not seem to have its usual 
spontaneity and even the sparrows were almost forgotten ; I 
saw only one little girl feeding them this afternoon. 

We rested where we had a good view of the Rue de 
Rivoli and watched the horses that had been requisitioned 



9G 



being led away ; the splendid drays, then the cab horses, hun- 
dreds of them, until only the most dilapidated were left for 
city use and so forlorn looking were they that I could not 
have had the heart to ride behind one, if I had had the fare, 
but lack of money keeps cab rides at a safe distance just now. 

I could afford a copy of "La Patrie" which the women 
sell every evening, so we were glad to read of three success- 
ful repulses the Servians had given the Austrians. On the 
other hand the Germans, this afternoon, were able to over- 
power of the Russians at the little town of Czenstochow near 
Lublin. There was a beautiful tribute to Jaures, the much 
loved socialist, who was assassinated last Saturday. Crowds 
of his admiring friends attended his funeral at which words 
of appreciation and praise were spoken by Viviani. 

Ed did not stay in front of the Police station all day. 
There was a crowd of three or four hundred there, Germans 
and Austrians were being given the preference. He timed 
the rate at which they were being taken in and found that 
only about five went in each hour. He felt, therefore, that if 
he looked around at the end of each day and found they were 
still taking people, he could not get into trouble, as he felt 
that the time allowed for securing the necessary papers 
would necessarily have to be extended from day to day until 
all were taken care of. 



97 



Wednesday, August 5 th. 

The day began with a shower and we were thankful that 
we had been able to obtain a little money from Cook's, even 
though at a premium, because one of the things it enabled 
us to do was to purchase an umbrella. 

Ed made his usual pilgrimage to the Police and Hilda 
and I went to the Galeries Lafayette where we luxuriated in 
thirty-five dollars worth of clothes, which gave us a dress 
apiece and changes of underclothing, so that now we feel we 
are prepared to stay in Paris for weeks if necessary. It was 
enlightening to see how the employers of this leading store 
are conducting their large organization. In order to keep 
their men and women employed, they were busy cutting and 
rolling bandages, and making gray shirts for their soldiers. 
There was hardly a clerk I talked with who did not have a 
relative or friend who had gone to the front. They all spoke 
with appreciation of their employers who would not let them 
suffer in this hour of need. The hours, of course, were short- 
ened, the store opening only in the afternoon, but they were 
given their usual luncheon, and while we were still there, the 
telephone rang and gave a bulletin of the latest news from 
the front. As to customers, there were only half a dozen of 
us during the hour we spent at shopping. 

Our next step was to register at the New York Herald 
office. These rooms and those of Morgan Harjes are veri- 
table headquarters for Americans. They come in streams 
from early morning until the doors are closed. Everybody 
seems to be looking for friends and acquaintances or wish- 
ing to have friends and acquaintances find them. It is as- 
sumed that almost everybody touring through this country 



98 



will necessarily drift back to Paris and that all who are trav- 
eling in Switzerland and Germany will attempt to reach this 
City or London. Hence, everybody is registering at the 
office of the New York Herald, the American Express Com- 
pany and Morgan Harjes. Although our sailings for home 
are booked for the Laconia from Liverpool, September first, 
and our trunks are in London, the feeling of uncertainty in 
the future is so great that we, like everybody else, would take 
any sailings that were offered us, chancing a refund on our 
other tickets and the ultimate return of our baggage. 

Accordingly we joined the throng at the office of the 
Companie Transatlantique to see if there was a new sailing 
to be had, or, if by a slim chance some passenger booked for 
the Chicago had given up his passage, but the chance was 
too slim, the Chicago was full to overflowing. 

We three then lunched at Duval's, near our hotel, for 
ninety-two cents. Our meals today have reached our maxi- 
mum of economy — five dollars, tips and all. 

The Figaro says the Germans are trying to break in 
upon the Belgian frontier. 

Sir Edward Gray has announced to the House of Com- 
mons the purport of Germany's note asking Belgium to 
allow the Germans to march through her land, also the re- 
sponse of that brave little country. This communication was 
greeted with great applause. Japan did not ally herself to 
Austria, but will side with the Triple Entente in loyal ad- 
herence to the obligations of her treaty with England. 

The Herald speaks enthusiastically of the work of the 
American Ambassador and his wife. In fact, it is seldom 
that one man in a difficult position receives such unanimous 



99 



praise from all sources. American travelers, Americans resi- 
dent in Paris, the French, all commend the fine work Mr. 
Herrick is doing. A committee is being formed to take up 
the work of providing for those of our countrymen who are 
in need; to help find accommodation, for all a passage home 
as soon as possible, to assist in locating and bringing to- 
gether families and friends and the multifarious other things 
that are necessary to be done until things become adjusted 
to the conditions imposed by the war. This committee is 
under the chairmanship of Judge Gary. 

While many people are suffering every mental concern 
as to how they will fare, the courage and mutual helpfulness 
of every one is noticeable to a degree and makes us proud of 
our countrymen. Occasionally someone will strike a little 
different note. For example, Ed heard today of a prominent 
United States Senator who had arrived without any baggage, 
had ruined the clothes he was wearing, was in a suit which 
he had borrowed from Judge Gary and could not quite un- 
derstand why all war preparations could not be temporarily 

deferred until the Senator from could get a suit of 

clothes. 

This evening Ed introduced himself to a gentleman 
who, with his wife and two children, were in the hotel dining- 
room. He proved to be a former United States cabinet mem- 
ber, Mr. B., whom he found attractive, as were also the ladies 
and his son, who had just graduated from Princeton. 

Hilda and I have quite decided, if we are to be here 
another day, to walk over to the American Church, which 
has been made a temporary shelter for refugees and to offer 
our services in whatever way we can. 



100 



Thursday, August 6th. 

In the morning Ed made his same unoriginal trip to the 
Police. 

Mr. B. of New York showed Ed a Herald in which the 
Packard Company, in a notice tucked away in a corner, ad- 
vertised trips to French ports. This seemed a God-send to 
the many tourists who had not been able to board a train, if 
only they were able to pay the fare for touring and could be 
one of the comparative few who could be accommodated this 
way. Ed and Mr. B., without waiting to tell us about this, 
immediately went to the Packard office and secured a car 
apiece at a charge of one hundred and fifty dollars to be paid 
if they succeeded in delivering us at Havre. Ed had not been 
able to secure any money adequate to take care of this charge 
or even to pay his hotel bill, but nevertheless arranged to 
have it call for us at the earliest time they could start us 
away, which they said would be three o'clock. 

It was then necessary for him to provide himself with 
funds. Mr. B. offered to introduce him to Mr. Harjes, who 
was acting as Treasurer for the American committee. He 
told Mr. Harjes that he had engaged the car, that he had a 
hotel bill to pay, that he wanted enough French money to 
take care of us and get us back to Paris should we fail to get 
through to the coast, and enough English money — prefer- 
ably gold, to keep him two or three days until he could make 
his connections in London, should we succeed in getting 
through. He had been told that one or two similar requests 
had been made the day before and that when five hundred 
dollars had been mentioned as the sum desired, those who 
had solicited the money had been able to get only three hun- 
dred. Ed, accordingly, asked for five hundred dollars and 

101 



much to his surprise, due undoubtedly to Mr. B.'s introduc- 
tion, he was told that the amount asked was entirely reason- 
able, and got it. 

So far he had not been able to reach the Commissaire of 
Police to get his passport stamped with the Laisser d' Aller or 
permission to go. Fortunately he met Dr. Graham Taylor 
again, who told him there was a special Commissaire in the 
Gare St. Lazare, authorized to issue these permits. Through 
Dr. Taylor's influence, he was able to reach this official, and 
got the necessary authority stamped upon our passports. 

It was noon before he was able to get back to the hotel 
and notify us to get our things in order for the start for 
Havre. It seemed to us like a momentous decision. In Paris 
we at least had shelter and a place to rest our heads at night. 
We could not be sure that we could get through to Havre. 
It seemed entirely possible that if we did reach there, we 
would find no boats crossing the Channel. Furthermore, it 
was almost certain that if there were no boats, we would find 
thousands of Americans and English who had gone to the 
coast for the same purpose, who would have more than filled 
all the hotels. If such should prove to be the case when we 
reached Havre, what were we going to be able to do? Never- 
theless the decision was made and the cars came for us about 
three o'clock. The condition of the times was brought close 
home to us during the morning when a porter removed the 
cot from our room, saying that the two top floors of the hotel 
were being converted into a hospital and that they would 
require the cot for there. 

We said good-bye to our host of the Terminal who had 
treated us with such thought and courtesy in spite of his 
much curtailed force of domestics. Our bill for the three 
nights in his comfortable hotel was only thirty-six dollars and 

102 



eighty-five cents, when he had a chance to charge us any 
amount and we could not have complained. His hotel has 
been full of Americans who have crossed the water to spend 
money and idle away their hours, meanwhile his peaceful 
country has become a battlefield, his men are being called 
away daily, his supply of provisions has run short and yet 
he has catered to these foreign guests of his without the 
slightest sign of impatience or annoyance. 

We drove first to the Packard office to arrange the pay- 
ment for the car. Ed told them that he could only pay them 
fifty dollars in money and would give them a check for the 
other hundred payable at his bank in Cleveland. To his 
surprise and delight they were perfectly willing to accept 
this arrangement. While this was just another instance of 
the way in which everybody helped during these trying days, 
we felt very appreciative of the whole treatment we had re- 
ceived from the Paris representative of the Packard Com- 
pany. 

At three-thirty, it seemed almost a miracle, we passed 
through the Porte de Champerret and were soon making our 
way along the outskirts of St. Germain. A break-neck speed 
was necessary to reach our destination before night-fall so 
we lurched from one side of the road to the other in anything 
but comfort. According to a new regulation which was en- 
forced today for the first time, and of which the Packard peo- 
ple had not been advised before we started, no automobiles 
were allowed to travel on the high roads after six o'clock. 
The roads were lined with soldiers, troops and farm horses 
and wagons full of provisions, whole regiments of them 
being led to the concentration camps, and at every smallest 
town or station we were thoroughly looked over and required 
to show our permit. 

103 



In the fields of Vernon was a great collection of material 
for the army, motors, big and little, delivery vans upon which 
were the names of familiar dry goods stores and huge furni- 
ture trucks all in waiting for the next move. In one town 
we passed a procession of some fifty little children from an 
orphan asylum under the escort of two nuns. Ed remarked, 
"They, at least, cannot lose their fathers." 

It was ten minutes of six and Havre seemed to be fading 
away in the dim distance. We were making our usual stop 
for investigation and were warned that under no conditions 
could we run after six o'clock. The Packard was put to full 
speed and we fairly flew along that country road. At six-ten, 
at our sixteenth halt, we were told our time was up and we 
could go no further. We were in a very small village and 
the townspeople were so impressed with the authority of their 
official who, by one word, could stop our Packards, that they 
all joined in telling us how impossible it was to go further. 
As the crowd grew larger, our hopes diminished, it seemed 
such a forlorn place in which to spend the night. But as a 
last resort our chauffeur asked if we could not pass on to 
Rouen providing the next guards did not stop us. After due 
consideration and anxious waiting, we were allowed to go, 
although I am sure the villagers expected our return within 
a few moments. 

The seventeenth guard was most generous ; we shouted 
our thanks and a hearty "Bon Chance' to him as we sped 
away. At six-thirty, with many sighs of relief, we drove up 
in front of the very comfortable Grand Hotel de la Poste, 
where we spent the night. 

Neither Hilda nor the B. family had seen the Cathedral 
so they walked over to it and saw what they could in the dusk. 



104 



Friday, August 7th. 

We were up at six and in our automobiles and on the 
road before seven-thirty, the principal reason for our early 
start being the fact that our chauffeur was expecting to be 
called at any moment into army service and wanted to hurry 
back. Furthermore, if a boat was to sail that evening, we 
wanted to attempt to secure rooms before any possible train 
from Paris might arrive. 

We reached Havre after a rainy but beautiful ride, the 
country was so delightfully fresh and green, dripping and 
soaked horses and soldiers we met everywhere, and our 
greetings of "Bon Chance" and "Vive La France" were 
answered with cordiality. There were no drooping spirits 
among these soldiers, though the skies continued to pour 
forth their torrents of water. 

At the steamship office we had no trouble in engaging 
rooms for our evening passage, then we looked about for a 
shelter in which to spend the day. The hotel near the dock 
had every room filled, but further in the town at the Nor- 
mandy, we were given two rooms, one for each family, and 
as I was tired I found bed a very comfortable place. 

Ed brought me all the local French papers he could find 
and to my horror, I read that the French are having a fearful 
time in holding Liege. After the first German attack, when 
the bridge had been blown to pieces, the Germans had, with 
their marvelous machine organization, made a pontoon. 
The Liege guns had destroyed it ; still another pontoon was 
set up across the Meuse and that has met the same fate from 
the Liegois. Each time scores of soldiers have been drowned 
or killed and yet there are more to fill their places. There 

105 



are said to be only forty thousand soldiers in Liege and it 
does not seem possible that they can hold out against such 
masses. The first English regiments are expected to arrive 
in Havre tonight. 

To our amazement, we heard that the La France, due 
to sail on Wednesday, is still detained in this harbour. 

At dinner we met an American who had just arrived 
on the Savoie and had heard of the war by wireless on the 
Atlantic. There is an Austrian Count held a prisoner in this 
hotel, we were told. 

We boarded the Normandy in the evening, and at ten 
o'clock were under way and ready for a good night's sleep. 



10G 



X 

> 
< 



o 




Saturday, August 8th. 

Rainy. Passed through the customs with no trouble, 
an extra precaution being that all travelers not British sub- 
jects must register full address and ages, etc., and of course 
our passport and our permit to leave France Laisser d'Aller 
had to be shown. The London train left at eight-thirty and 
all the way to that city we buried ourselves in the papers to 
find the latest news of war and conditions in England. Much 
was said in the Times of the sinking of the "Amphion" which 
occurred last week, but of which we had not yet heard, so 
extraordinarily careful has the English Press been in hold- 
ing back war news. It seems that H. M. S. Amphion sighted 
the Konigen Luise, a German mine layer, and as the latter 
refused to stop when a shot was fired across her bow, the 
Amphion gave chase. The German ship fired, then the de- 
stroyers surrounded and sank her. The Captain, furious, 
threatening to kill his men if they surrendered, was taken 
prisoner with his crew. When returning to port came the 
tragedy to the Amphion. She struck a sunken mine and 
the explosion ripped her fore part and badly burned both 
Germans and British who escaped drowning. About half 
the number aboard did escape and now the German sailors, 
recuperating in the hospitals, seem quite content not to be 
fighting. In fact, from all I read, the German soldiers have 
gone into this war half-heartedly and the German press is 
supposed to have incited their people to war by untrue tales 
of French and English tyranny, and they have made a great 
point of the cruelty of the Cossacks about to enter Germany 
and devour it. 

The report of the first battle at Liege of August 3rd is 
as told in the Times: "The advance guard of the Kaiser's 



107 



army was approaching from the westward, the attack was 
along a wide stretch of land north of the town of Vise and on 
the south below Liege. The enemy opened with a general 
advance on the forts, trying to cover the attack by artillery 
fire. But the artillery was not heavy enough, their big siege 
guns had not arrived, so, incredible as it may seem, those 
poor soldiers were marched to death, soldier to soldier. Just 
as Napoleon won some of his victories by a sudden applica- 
tion of mere mass, so these German generals fairly drove 
their men, stricken by terror between fear of discipline on 
the one hand and on the other fear of death in the face of 
the guns of the fort, and the result was terrible masses of 
dead accumulated in the fields, as a Belgian soldier described 
it, 'Death in the haystacks.' " 

Meanwhile in deep trenches between the forts the Bel- 
gian troops lay firing on their enemy with rifles. At the same 
time the forts thundered their cannon, and horrible to con- 
ceive of, fresh detachment after detachment rushed toward 
the trenches, broken and shattered before the Belgian fusil- 
lade. 

Toward afternoon the battle raged fiercer along all the 
lines. At one point the Germans succeeded in gaining a 
foothold on the slopes under the guns, forgetting that having 
passed the zone of fire of the great guns, the machine guns 
were still awaiting them. It took just one moment to sweep 
those slopes clean of German soldiers. The men in the 
trenches fired at not only fifty yard range, but grew im- 
patient for nearer work and began with bayonet charges and 
then it was the steel of the bayonets more than anything else 
which struck terror to the troops of the Kaiser. 

At Vise the Germans were attempting another attack. 



108 



The Belgians had blown up the bridges between the frontier 
and that town and the enemy had to build others. In one 
case the Belgians lay concealed while a pontoon was being 
erected and as soon as the work was finished, they opened 
fire; the bridge was destroyed and many of its engineers. 
After fierce fighting, the Germans entered Vise, but did not, 
as has been reported, massacre the inhabitants. During the 
night of August 5th, the forts of Liege were fired on in- 
cessantly but all the forts held out. On the morning of the 
6th a number of Uhlans entered Liege with Belgian cock- 
ades in their hats and with somewhat of a Belgian disguise, 
so at first they were not recognized as Germans. They ap- 
proached General Lehman, but were discovered in time so 
that not a man of the patrol was left alive. Then two Ger- 
man spies, disguised as French Officers, gained access to the 
town and were being conducted to the General, their object 
being to assassinate him, but their plan miscarried and they 
were shot. The fact that fire broke out in several places in 
town gave rise to a false rumor that Liege had been taken, 
and it must have been due to this that we received the news 
at Havre of the fall of Liege. All day long Thursday the 
attack continued with fearful scenes. They charged, they 
shot, and struggled at hand grips and always it was a deadly 
encounter. To add to the horror, a life and death strife was 
going on in mid air. A Belgian lost his life in repelling the 
attack of a huge Zeppelin ; another airship with two Belgians 
rose above Liege and flew over the western forts. Both Ger- 
man and Belgian batteries opened fire upon it, the latter, of 
course, under misapprehension. The shells, fortunately, did 
not reach the machine but burst under it, giving the airmen 
the most appalling earthquake feeling imaginable, but they 
returned, by some miracle, to land in safety. 

The battle was only over at night-fall when the German 

109 



fire slackened. The Belgians with their forts untaken and 
filled with pride and enthusiasm of their plucky army, were 
a contrast to the poor soldiers of the Kaiser. To add to their 
terrible loss and weariness, through bad tactics, the big guns 
had not come when required. Food, too, had been delayed 
and for two days many of them went hungry. No wonder 
they are dispirited and have lost heart when war is just be- 
ginning. What has become of the automatic machine army 
of Germany? The Times seems to think its death knell has 
been sounded. 

The French are reported once more in Alsace, occupy- 
ing Altkirch and Muhlhausen. On Friday at midnight the 
French troops and an infantry regiment attacked Altkirch 
in a furious charge; they carried the German trenches and 
put the Germans to flight. 

Back from the war to reality in the shape of the Water- 
loo Station. To our amazement, we found plenty of porters 
and even a long line of taxis, empty and waiting for pas- 
sengers. Such a difference from France where every man 
has turned soldier and all vehicles requisitioned for military 
use. The station was crowded with more tourists than sol- 
diers. The Scotch in their kilts were the soldiers most in 
evidence and splendid looking men they were. The English 
taxi was a joy to me, driven so carefully and moderately com- 
pared with the reckless dash of the taxis on the continent. 
On the streets British flags were flying, but every building 
was not covered with them as was the case in France. There 
was no shouting or uproar in the streets and except for the 
khaki uniforms everywhere, we seemed to have found refuge 
in a land of every day occurrences. 

At Almond's Hotel in Clifford Street, most fortunately 



no 



rooms were still reserved for us, although the capacity of 
the house was taxed to its utmost. The clerk of the hotel told 
me that there had been shouting and uproarious singing on 
the streets at first, but that was quickly silenced. The banks 
had closed for a few days aside from the regular bank holi- 
days which came about a week ago, so that no withdrawals 
could be made. A diplomatic move and a panic saved ! And 
now all banks are again opened with the confidence of the 
people assured. 

We found a splendid collection of mail at Brown, Ship- 
ley's after having gone ten days without any. Also plenty 
of money was to be had. The ten shillings, one pound and 
five pounds are issued in paper, but the shops do not look 
askance at paper money here as they did in France. No 
word from our friend in Berlin, I am sorry to say. We 
hoped she might have crossed from Holland, but apparently 
she could not leave Germany in time. 

London is making a brave effort to keep her trades go- 
ing, the stores are all opened and customers are earnestly 
asked to keep up their orders for the welfare of the men and 
women employed. There is plenty of petrol and we are 
urged to use motors and help keep the automobile companies 
going. Horses by the hundreds have been requisitioned so 
there are few of the hansom cabs so typical of London. 
The Government is insuring the merchant ships at eighty- 
five per cent of their value so that trade will not suffer. 

At Almond's, we are splendidly fed, with once more the 
delightful luxury of butter. We have been told apologeti- 
cally by the chambermaid that there is not an overabundance 
of towels, due to the requisition of the laundry vans, but that 
is the only shortage at all apparent. 



in 



The evening paper says the school children are called 
again into session after only a fortnight's vacation, the rea- 
son being to provide the children of the poor with meals. 
Provision is made for dogs of the poor so parents will not 
have the extra animals as well as children to feed. 

Our afternoon was spent in unpacking two trunks 
which we were most fortunate in getting all the way from 
Zurich so promptly. Two are missing still, but the porter 
says every other tourist is without at least part of his baggage. 
Ed feels a most comfortable sense of security in this land of 
English-speaking people, and relief at having landed his 
family safely. He has heard from Berger's that they mailed 
to Morgan Harjes fifty pounds in gold, taking it for granted 
we were in need. 



1J2 



Sunday, August 9th. 

Still overcast. Walked to St. James and heard the Rev. 
Canon McCormick preach "Not Peace, but the Sword." A 
band of friends have taken great exception to England's 
forward war movement, calling war for any cause an excuse 
for legitimate murder. He explained that the vast difference 
between murder as distinct from war is due to the motive 
behind, the difference between the individual going out to 
kill another individual as distinct from a mass fighting in a 
just cause. As to the cause, there can not be a doubt in the 
mind of any true Briton. By the signing of the Triple En- 
tente, made for the preservation of peace in Europe, Great 
Britain bound herself to stand by her allies, France and 
Russia. If she had simply acted with them in fair weather 
and had deserted them in the hour of danger, her honour 
would have been badly stained, but if she had stood by and 
watched Germany in her violation of Belgian neutrality, she 
would have been guilty of an infamy as yet unheard of in 
the history of the British Empire. Urged by Herr von 
Bethman Hollweg to disregard the "scrap of paper" the 
country has risen in all her might and has pledged her last 
shilling and her last man to protect the rights and the homes 
of those people against which such a crime has been com- 
mitted, to put down the tyrants and aggressors who have 
forgotten the spirit of Christ in their desire of greed and 
power, and never can our countries be free from war and 
strife until Christianity has taken possession of the entire 
world. 

In the afternoon Hilda and I walked to Westminster, 
but were too hopelessly late to enter the church, it was so 
crowded, with doors guarded and another crowd waiting 



113 



outside, due to the intercession prayers for the country. We 
mounted a bus on the Strand and went to St. Paul's where 
we heard afternoon services and beautiful music. 

The News this evening reports that General Leman 
would not allow the twenty-four hours armistice asked for 
by the Germans in which to bury their dead. It sounds cruel, 
but it would have offered them an advantage the Belgians 
dared not give. It seems now as if the Germans could hardly 
be ready for an offensive movement for three or four days 
after their terrific loss of twenty-five thousand out of one 
hundred and twenty-five thousand men. In acknowledg- 
ment of the heroic defense of Liege, the French President 
bestowed on that town the Cross of the Legion of Honour. 

The nephew of Emperor William in charge of the Ger- 
man cavalry is supposed to have been captured. Germany 
and Austria-Hungary are exercising extraordinary pressure, 
not only upon the Italian Government, but upon King Vic- 
tor Emmanuel himself, with a view towards participating in 
this European conflict, but the King and government remain 
firm in their refusal to abandon their attitude of neutrality, 
rejecting tempting offers of additions of territory from the 
two nations. By the terms of the Triple Alliance, Italy is 
not compelled to join in an offensive war, only in defense for 
Austria or Germany, but in this case both nations assumed 
the offensive without as much as consulting Italy. In Rome, 
President Wilson's offer for mediation has produced an ex- 
cellent effect and Italy will support the American proposal 
warmly. 

In German Togoland, the port of Lome on the west 
coast of Africa was seized by British forces, no resistance 
offered. Austrian troops have crossed the Russian frontier 



114 



near the Roumanian border and set fire to Russian villages. 
While near Servia, the Russians are falling back upon the 
Danube. Lord Kitchener's "call to arms" has met with 
great success, there have been forty thousand recruits in a 
week and in the House of Commons Saturday, offers of 
forty-eight thousand troops to be sent to this country from 
Canada, Australia and New Zealand were accepted. 

It is reported that a corps of ten thousand motor cars had 
been offered by the auto association for service at home, for 
police purposes and abroad, also offers from a thousand 
owners to place their cars and themselves at the disposal of 
the war office. Also a bill was read to give the Board of 
Agriculture and Fisheries and Local Governing Board 
powers with respect to housing, so that instead of spending 
four millions for the relief of the distress, this amount should 
be spent in building houses, setting the men to work in their 
own trade instead of giving money to the unemployed, thus 
it would be in the nature of an investment rather than a chari- 
table grant. Then to prevent food corners, a bill was intro- 
duced by which the Board of Trade should be endowed with 
the same powers for requisitioning food stuffs as the naval 
and military authorities possess, so that in case of unreason- 
able withholding of supplies, the Board could take posses- 
sion of supplies, paying to the owners such prices as might 
be decided reasonable. 

Saturday the King received Sir Edward Goschen, the 
British Ambassador at Berlin, just returned from his excit- 
ing experiences. The Austrian Ambassador is still here. 
Germans who have failed to register are being arrested every- 
where, eighty and ninety at a time. 



115 



Monday, August 10th. 

In the morning we went to the Savoy Hotel where we 
found, it seemed to me, all of the Americans supposed to be 
on this side of the water. The Savoy Hotel has given over 
special rooms for the use of Americans, and I don't believe 
there is a busier place in the City of London than the Ameri- 
can Citizens' Committee White Room. There are commit- 
tees on finance, transportation, hotels, men's relief and wom- 
en's relief, registration, baggage, post office, bulletin, and a 
committee for Americans stranded on the continent. 

A paper called the American Bulletin is published daily 
and distributed freely through the kindness of Mr. Self ridge, 
to every American. One of its columns, "Who's where?" is 
really appalling, for it shows the anxiety of the families of 
the missing travelers ; one of its columns gives a list of two 
hundred names of whom information is desired. Then there 
is the information list, an answer to the "Who's where?" In 
this column we answered an inquiry of the C. family, that 
we had seen Mr. and Mrs. C. last, safe and comfortable in 
Zurich on August ist. We also advertised for our missing 
friend heard of last in Berlin. Then there is the subscription 
list, and it is amazing to see how generously Americans are 
giving their money to help those less fortunate. 

Typewriters were busily clicking reports of the differ- 
ent committees, groups of people were continuously finding 
old friends and making new ones and I believe many per- 
sons, aside from the committee, spend their entire days in 
this most interesting center. I am sure Ed will find his way 
here often, for one could hardly miss meeting at least one 
acquaintance at any hour of the day. 



116 



The afternoon was very warm and the coolness of West- 
minster Abbey delightful. Walking through the nave we 
went slowly, trying to absorb the wonder of it all, its tombs of 
statesmen, generals and remarkable men, living today in the 
minds of every Briton as vividly as if they were still upon this 
earth. We looked into the Poet's Corner and lingered long 
in the beautiful chapel of Henry VII. There were the 
figures of Henry and his wife Elizabeth, lying side by side. 
Then there was the tomb of Mary, Queen of Scots, the two 
sisters Elizabeth and Mary, and it was for this Mary that 
almost the last Catholic mass was held in the Cathedral. A 
long line of Monks led the procession, the Monks knowing 
that this would be the last service in which they would ever 
take part, and awaiting them were four bishops and the Ab- 
bot of Westminster in their most magnificent robes. The 
sister, Elizabeth, with all of her hatred of the Catholic serv- 
ice, had to be present on this occasion. 

On the outside of the white marble tomb beneath which 
the two sisters rest are the words, "Consorts both in throne 
and grave, Elizabeth and Mary, in hope of our resurrection." 
It is good to feel that James of Scotland honored his mother 
by bringing her to this beautiful resting place "that the like 
honor might be done his dearest Mother." 

Oliver Cromwell, the short-lived Edward VI, the two 
small tombs of the baby daughters of James I, one in the 
shape of a cradle, the bones of the two young murdered 
princes whose death cast such a blot upon their villain uncle, 
John, other princes and dukes ; and in this chapel, in the most 
appropriate place is Dean Stanley and his wife, Augusta. 
This Dean of the Abbey knew more about the entire abbey, 
its original history and all, than any other man in the world. 

Rode home through Hyde Park, which was so empty 

117 



compared to the sight Hilda saw a month ago. Hardly a 
victoria to be seen and only four people riding in Rotten 
Row. The crowd is always about Buckingham Palace 
now, it seems, such is the spirit of enthusiasm and loyalty to 
the King and Queen in this time of calamity. 

The French have actually entered Alsace, on Friday 
night they came into Altkirch, their infantry regiment made 
a furious charge upon the German trenches. They were 
given an enthusiastic welcome by the old men who had seen 
the other war. Next Muhlhausen, a large town nine miles 
north of Altkirch was taken and here, too, a warm welcome 
was given to the French after forty-four years of waiting, and 
the Germans were driven ten miles to the river. It was re- 
ported that the Goeben and Breslau were sighted in the 
Aegian Sea yesterday. It is also announced that the Gov- 
ernment of Montenegro has informed the Austro-Hungar- 
ian Minister in Cettinje that it considers itself in a state of 
war against Austria. This makes the sixth country in arms 
against Germany and Austria. 



118 




WESTMINSTER ABBEY— Tomb of Queen Elizabeth 



Tuesday, August 11th. 

Called on Miss R. at the Strand Palace Hotel, then 
walked to St. Paul's Cathedral. Among the tombs we found 
the memorials of many of England's most beloved heroes. 

There was the tomb of General Gordon of Khartoum 
fame, Sir Thomas Picton, who fell at the battle of Waterloo, 
and many others. And while we were reading the inscrip- 
tions upon the monuments of these warriors, a service of in- 
tercession for the soldiers of today was being held in the choir 
part of the Cathedral. There is a fine bronze relief in mem- 
ory of Sir Arthur Sullivan who brought such delightful 
music into our world, and most imposing of all is the sar- 
cophagus of the Duke of Wellington, the bronze figure of 
the Duke lying upon the tomb. 

Up the winding stairs a guide led us into the whispering 
gallery and there while we stood opposite, it seemed a mile 
away, we heard the echoes of his whispered history of the 
building of St. Paul. Designed by Sir Christopher Wren, 
it was begun in 1675. Unlike other Cathedrals, the great 
part of the cost, amounting to about eight hundred and fifty 
thousand pounds, was defrayed by a tax on coal entering the 
port of London. The architect received a salary of two hun- 
dred pounds a year during the building, emphatically whis- 
pered by the guide, as an item of utmost importance, also the 
fact that the cathedral is the fourth largest in the world. 

For luncheon we found our way, just as Mr. Pickwick 
accompanied by Sam Weller did years ago, down Fleet Street 
into Wine Office Court, a dark alley three feet wide which 
looks as if any crime might be committed in its shadows. 
Quite suddenly, before we realized we had discovered our 



119 



Tavern, there was the red lamp over a shabby little door, with 
the words, "Ye Cheshire Cheese" and we stepped into its en- 
trance, beheld the historic bar and felt we were following in 
the footsteps of our ancestors, generations of wits and phi- 
losophers. Into the favorite tavern with its dingy walls and 
freshly sawdusted floor, carrying with it the scent of ages, 
we found just room enough to squeeze on to one of the 
benches, like church pews. There were crowds of sight- 
seers already enjoying the famous chops and cheese. The 
seats were hard and so was the oak-paneled wall at our backs, 
but the atmosphere was a delight. At the opposite corner 
from where we sat was the favorite seat of Johnson and Gold- 
smith, the polished spots upon the wall showing the marks 
where their celebrated heads had leaned. Our wooden table 
was covered with a spotless cloth and our china was the blue 
willow of the design used by our forefathers. It did seem in- 
congruous to see the guests in such modern attire, so out of 
harmony with the quaintness of the place where two hundred 
years ago buckles, cocked hats and Elizabethan gowns 
abounded. Our waiter, too, looked quite differently from 
his predecessor on the wall, but his spirit was the same, and 
with the best of good will he served us with the hottest mixed 
grill of a chop, a kidney, a sausage, a browned slice of to- 
mato and the best peas I have ever tasted, and of course, ale 
from the old time pewter mugs. Then followed the Cheshire 
Cheese, scorching hot and delicious. 

We left our benches to look into the kitchen. There 
we saw the original grill over which our delicacies had been 
broiled and the copper kettles singing over the hot coals just 
as they sang a hundred years ago. Upstairs, we saw the chair 
used daily by the great Johnson, while above is the inscrip- 
tion, "More regal in state than many Kings." On the walls 



120 



of this interesting room are cupboards containing old plates 
and punch glasses and the spoon used to stir the pudding for 
at least three generations. 

There are many clubs whose members have their meet- 
ings regularly at this Tavern. Among them the Johnson 
Club, made up of eminent men in literature and art. These 
members bind themselves to sup together annually about 
December 13th, the anniversary of the Doctor's death. They 
come in costume consistent with Johnsonian days and as 
nearly as possible resembling those of Garrick, Boswell, 
Goldsmith and the Doctor, etc. Leaving the old grandfather 
clock at the foot of the stairway, we found a guide, one of 
Dickens' own characters, the sort of a person never to be 
seen out of London, who wanted to show us the best part of 
the building and the only part, so he said, which survived 
the fire of 1666. Under a narrow vaulted' door-way, we went 
down the stone steps into the most antique wine cellar, where 
some order of monks — I don't remember of what order — hid 
away their wines of all brews and ages. There were dust- 
covered barrels and dust-covered bottles in every nook and 
corner of this musty, ancient cellar. There was one gas pipe 
which lent us a light, a very flickering one, by which we 
peeped through the cobwebs and into the corners until we 
had praised this spot to the satisfaction of our conductor and 
were allowed to go once more into the sunshine of Fleet 
Street. 

Back again to the evening papers by which I see the 
Germans have compelled the French to evacuate Muhl- 
hausen, but in upper Alsace the French remain masters. The 
French army is already in Belgium and, to the joy of the 
British, is advancing through the Ardennes region to join 
hands with the Belgian Army. The bombardment of the 

121 



forts at Liege still continues without intermission, but every 
fort holds out. 

The Uhlans seem to be used for the most reckless work 
of wire cutting and spying, etc. One who was recently cap- 
tured was found to be the bearer of a map marked with the 
marches of the German Army. The Germans, according 
to this map, were to have been in Brussels August 3rd and at 
Lille August 5th. A force of Uhlans entered the town hall 
of Tongres and carried off seven thousand six hundred francs 
from the treasury of the town and ten thousand from the post 
office to feed the rest of the starving Uhlans. 

The Bulgarian government is demanding an appropria- 
tion of money for mobilization purposes. Also the Grand 
Vizier of Turkey insists on the precautionary step of Turkish 
mobilization. 

From a point northeast of Liege to Metz, a battle line of 
about two hundred miles is being formed. In the South the 
Germans have penetrated the French line over the Luxem- 
bourg frontier and are advancing through the Grand Duchy. 
The King and Queen visited Aldershot today to see the 
troops encamped there. 



122 



Wednesday, August 12th. 

In the morning we shopped with Miss R. and as we have 
done almost daily, stopped in front of the large window of 
Selfridge's where the crowd is sure to be looking for the 
latest news from the scene of war. On an enormous map the 
line of battle on land and sea is traced day by day, the differ- 
ent nations' colors showing how the countries stand. Every 
store has banks for the Prince of Wales' fund; we always 
drop our change in them and I have never yet seen an empty 
box. 

We rode on the bus down to the Fleet Street district and 
lunched at the old much famed chop house, Pymm's. Our 
waiter showed great pride in this establishment of which he 
was a most efficient part, and we can bear witness to the fact 
that no better lobster nor suet pudding than he gave us can 
be had in all of London. 

Dr. H. came for dinner; he had been at St. Malo and 
had just gone from there to Holland when the war broke out, 
from there he crossed on the same last boat upon which 
everyone who has come from that country seems to have 
traveled. He told us of quite a few friends who have booked 
for America in steerage and in second class. 

Ed passed most of the day at the American Committee 
rooms at the Savoy. 

The food problem in England is most encouraging, 
while that of Germany looks rather black, so much so that 
it will be impossible for her to fight in the winter if she can- 
not keep her seas open. From a country in which her people 
were great tillers of the soil, Germany has become a country 



123 



of great cities and dwindling farmer population. Out of her 
resources, Germany can only provide about eighty-six per 
cent of her people's nourishment. She buys her milk and 
wheat from Russia. That market is closed. Also, Rou- 
mania has supplied her with wheat, but if Roumania remains 
neutral and is willing to sell, how are cargoes to be shipped? 
The Dardenelles may be closed any day except to neutral 
powers. Equally small are her chances of grain from United 
States or beef from Buenos Aires, for such shipments could 
not run the gauntlet of the vessels in the Atlantic and North 
Seas. Hungary may send cattle and barley for Bavarian 
beer, but neither she nor Austria has wheat to spare. The 
war chest of Germany is known to be full just now, but it is 
said her war expenses are not less than twelve million pounds 
a day spread over Europe, while her annual imports of food 
and drink cost her one hundred and sixty-two million 
pounds. 



124 



Thursday, August 13th. 

Quite warm and sunny. We took the eleven-fifteen 
train for Maidenhead, arriving there at twelve. Mr. C. met 
us in his motor and we drove through the town past the 
Maidenhead thicket to his home. Woolley Hall is perfectly 
delightful in every way imaginable. To this old house 
owned for thirty years by a scientist, has been added all the 
modern comforts and conveniences. Airiness and sunshine 
abound and rooms and halls were filled with the garden 
flowers. There were dozens of vases of roses, besides snap- 
dragon, dahlias, larkspur, large jars of silvery gray leaf in 
the hallway, plants of laurel which gave a delightfully cool 
appearance, and most effective upon the hall table was a 
gorgeous red gladiolus among a mass of green foliage. 

The library, with its superb oak paneling, was bought 
from a house four hundred years of age. Above its mantel 
piece is a squirrel carved in oak, the emblem of the former 
owner. 

In this household each one is doing his share towards 
helping the soldiers. The women are making gray flannel 
shirts for the soldiers, and the only horse possessed by the 
family has been requisitioned for the army. 

After luncheon the men went off to the golf links and 
we drove through the quaint little town of Henley to War- 
grave. There we took one of the river boats and paddled 
down the backwater. Under willow trees, curving in and 
out continuously, it was deliciously cool, lazy and quite re- 
mote from noise and commotion. It was only when we 
found one occupant of a canoe with a newspaper upon which 
we saw war headings in large type, that once more the situa- 



125 



tion of the country — I feel almost like saying, our country — 
dawns upon us with all its force. 

The ride back to Woolley Hall was by a different road, 
but equally attractive. We had tea, then walked through the 
woody part of the grounds. There were firs and pines of 
every variety, a Cedar of Lebanon quite as large as the one 
we saw at Usse and said to be the second largest in England. 
There were groups of the silver yew against backgrounds of 
dark pines, blue spruces, larches and evergreens of every 
variety, long lanes of yews, of cedar and box. I have never 
before seen such a variety of lanes and each one with a beau- 
tiful outlook. 

The scientist made the most of his trees, but did not 
think much of flower culture. The rose garden was done 
since his days and was lovely in its bloom. There was be- 
side the roses and violets, the prettiest border of high snap- 
dragon edged with the English pansies. At the end of the 
rose garden was the tea house, the upper verandah of which 
looked down upon the tennis courts and croquet grounds. 

We took the six-fifteen train back to the Paddington 
Station and found the City bulletins full of German casual- 
ties. The great armies are still facing each other on the 
enormous line of battle extending from Liege to Belfort. A 
force of six thousand Germans was routed by a similar force 
of Belgians. News of this victory has called forth the 
greatest enthusiasm along the Belgian front, the engagement 
being called the Battle of Haelen ; it lasted all day yesterday 
until seven-thirty and the ground was covered with dead and 
wounded. The French, retiring before the terrible battle of 
Muhlhausen, lost large numbers of men, while German 
casualities are between two and three thousand. 



126 



At present a state of war exists between England and 
Austria, England's declaration following France's rupture 
with Austria. Germany and Austria are now fighting 
against six nations. The town of Pont-a-Mousson, near 
Nancy was bombarded by Germans but little damage was 
done. 

Landen was occupied by the Germans, but retaken by 
the French. The Russians so far have repulsed the Aus- 
trians. In Cologne the church towers are fitted up as watch 
towers to watch for aeroplanes. At night the city is plunged 
into darkness except for the searchlights turned on every- 
where. The inhabitants have a horror of the French airmen. 
In loyal India, every ruling Chief has offered his financial 
and military aid to England. 

In battle the Germans crossed the river Velpe by narrow 
bridges which meant narrow columns, giving the Belgians 
a chance to rip up their columns so that the bridges were 
filled with their dead. The Germans quite disregarded pre- 
cautions, hoping to over-ride the Belgians by the weight of 
their attack. 



127 



Friday, August 14th. 

Very warm. Shopped and saw some of the regulars 
marching down Regent Street. Lunched at the Savoy and 
looked over the American Room and the daily paper being 
issued by the American Committee. 

After luncheon we visited London's old fortress palace 
and prison, the Tower of William the Conqueror. We 
walked through the entrance to the Traitors' Gate, the Tower 
of St. Thomas, built by Henry IV, adjoining it ; looked under 
its arch at the river, now full of traffic and wondered what 
sort of craft it was that carried to their doom the prisoners 
of distinction such as Sir Thomas More, Queen Anne 
Boleyn, Katherine Howard, the Princess Elizabeth, Lady 
Jane Grey, James, duke of Monmouth, and others. It was 
the custom to land them here after their trial at Westminster. 

In the Wakefield Tower, we went into the jewel room 
and were quite dazzled by the splendor before us. The Im- 
perial State Crown worn last by Edward VII has only, 
among its many other jewels, two thousand eight hundred 
and eighteen diamonds and a remarkably large ruby, given 
formerly to the Black Prince by Peter the Cruel. The other 
crowns of King George and Queen Mary and those of 
other kings and queens were gorgeous too. 

Then there were the Salt Cellars. Hilda could not un- 
derstand why they were so huge. The eleven St. George's 
Salts were made for the Coronation banquet of Charles II 
and used up to the time of George IV when this function was 
held for the last time. At the top of the crown jewels case 
is the Salt of State of silver gilt in form of a tower presented 
to Charles II in commemoration of his restoration. 



128 



We passed from there into the White Tower, the oldest 
part of the fortress. The walls here are in some parts fifteen 
inches in thickness. Its chapel of St. John is the largest and 
most complete now remaining in any Norman Castle. 

The Armory has a wonderful collection of armor and 
weapons of every imaginable kind, both mediaeval and 
modern. Especially interesting to us were suits of armor 
and mail formerly worn by the old monarchs and famous 
knights. There were several that belonged to Henry VIII, 
and such pounds of steel as were worn by the horses and men ! 
One suit that covered the horse of Henry VIII, which we 
saw, was presented by the Emperor Maximilian. Two 
young princes at the end of the room were wearing forty-two 
pounds of armor. Hilda said she didn't see how war existed 
in those days, for how could one ever be killed when so well 
protected? 

Another room was full of Indian weapons and a case 
of small knives with lapis lazuli handles ornamented with 
turquoise and jewels was the most interesting to me. 

Outside in the open space before the Waterloo Barracks 
new recruits were being drilled. Many of the men in their 
every day suits have not yet received uniforms, but were 
marching as if they had been at it for months. 

The French troops are in possession of the Vosges 
mountains after a series of fierce struggles for five days. At 
Lothain a two days' engagement resulted in complete French 
victory, the 21st German Dragoons being annihilated. Last 
night at Diest, the Germans also met with a reverse. As yet 
the enemy have not been able to take any of the Liege forts. 
The latest rumor of the Goeben and Breslau is that they have 
sailed through the Dardenelles and possibly may be bought 

129 



by Turkey, by whose vessels they were escorted into the 
Straits. The immediate repatriation of the German officers 
and crews of these ships is demanded by the English Gov- 
ernment. 



130 



Saturday, August 15th. 

Cloudy and cooler. In the morning made calls at the 
Burlington just around the corner from Almond's. At noon 
went to the British Museum. I was given a card of admis- 
sion while Ed had to sign a card with his name and address, 
making himself responsible for me, in case, the officials said, 
I should try to burn the Museum. It was our first experience 
with the precautions taken against suffragette outrages. I 
asked how successful the suffragettes had been and the guard 
said they had broken glass cases but were caught before do- 
ing further damage. We went first to the Roman gallery and 
saw the portrait heads of Julius Caesar, Tiberius, Nero and 
the really beautiful head of the daughter of Mark Anthony. 
In the basement was the room of casts. Many of the originals 
we had seen in the Louvre and more to be found in Athens, 
etc. In the Ephesus room, we saw the remains of the actual 
temple of Diana, built about 330 B. C. and standing where 
St. Paul was at Ephesus. 

In the Egyptian galleries we went back to 3,000 years 
before Christ. We saw the colossal head of Thutmosis III 
of 1500 B. C, which takes up the entire end of the gallery; 
Rameses II, etc., monuments covered with the birds and keys 
and all the interesting symbols of those days. The black 
Rosetta stone was interesting because from its three inscrip- 
tions in the hieroglyphic, demotic and Greek, the discovery 
of the hieroglyphic language of ancient Egypt was made. 
The stone was found by the French near the Rosetta mouth 
of the Nile in 1798, but passed into the hands of the English 
in 1802. 

In the Assyrian rooms we saw sculptures from palaces 
at Ninevah 705-681, etc., but best of all in the room of Elgin 

131 



marbles were the friezes from the Parthenon. Another 
tourist kindly lent me Power's book which goes into detail 
on this subject so I had a beautiful time following the "Pro- 
cession of the Panathenaic Festival." I began with the men 
dressing for the ride, the horses being harnessed, the im- 
patience of the horses to be off, then the ride growing faster 
with prancing horses hard to control. In one horse the veins 
fairly stand out on his body, so alert is he for the race ; and 
so on. Then come the chariots with beautiful procession of 
maidens and youths with offerings, and most interesting to 
compare was Phidias' frieze of Poseidon Apollo, Artemis 
and Aphrodite against whose knee Eros leans. These di- 
vinities are seated on stools, having no need of backs or arms 
to rest upon, while next is the frieze of Hera and Zeus done 
by another sculptor. The divinities are supported by a back 
and lean toward a more human need of support and love of 
ease, showing a vast difference between the conception of 
Phidias and his fellow sculptor. 

It was while I was still absorbed in Hera and Zeus that 
my family appeared and announced that it was two-thirty 
and they were starved, so I said good-bye to the Gods and 
Goddesses and went off to the Monaco where their human 
cravings were satisfied with chops and quite a hearty lunch- 
eon. We spent the rest of the rainy afternoon indoors. 

The Evening News reports that the French are moving 
to the aid of the Belgians from Charleroi to Gembloux, north 
of Namur and have completed the transport of troops into 
Belgium. On Tuesday and Wednesday nights, forts on the 
left bank of River Meuse, at Liege, were again attacked vio- 
lently, but the holes made were promptly rilled with mat- 
tresses. The French in crossing the battlefield at Ligny have 



132 



passed the spot where, in 1815, Napoleon won his last victory 
by defeating the Prussians. Behind the French armies are 
large reserves of men totaling about a million. Through the 
delay of the German attack, due to her repulse from Bel- 
gium, the reserve divisions have had time to be drilled into 
good shape. The pressure of Russia is being felt now as 
she draws nearer the German frontier. Her cavalry raids 
on German and Austrian railways are becoming more dar- 
ing. 

Reports from Belgium say that the Americans are be- 
ing well treated, but every Englishman between the ages of 
twenty-five and forty-five is being detained. Whenever a 
non-combatant or an old man is known to have fired from 
windows upon the Germans, the firing is returned by a 
wholesale process of revenge, in which women and children 
have suffered. 



133 



Sunday, August 16th. 

Bright, gorgeous day. Took the eleven o'clock train to 
Maidenhead and from the Wilder Boat Company hired an 
electric launch in which we started slowly up the river. Our 
launch-man told us it had been the worst season he had 
known in twenty years on account of the cold weather, but 
in spite of war, the river was quite full of canoes, rowboats 
and steam boats of every size and description, and all the 
population for miles about seemed to have turned out to 
enjoy the river; and it was enjoyable, every turn of it. The 
trees on the right side going up were of all sorts, splendid 
big ones, making a beautiful background for the long grasses 
and loose-wort which grew on the edge of the water. The 
houses on the river were mostly low and blended harmon- 
iously into the river scenery. We passed beautiful Clieve- 
den, the Astor home, situated amid rocks and hanging woods. 
The house-boats were few and far between, only about half 
a dozen of them, but wherever thev were, thev added to the 
attractiveness of the Thames, with their boxes of geraniums 
and greens. 

After passing through two locks, we arrived at Cook- 
ham, said to be one of the most picturesque villages of the 
Thames. We stopped at the Ferry Hotel, supposedly three 
hundred and fifty years old. We enjoyed the typical Eng- 
lish luncheon of cold meat and cheese and listened to good 
music played softly by a violin and harp, quite adding to the 
charm of this quaint little inn. 

Down the river again and past Maidenhead, through 
another lock to Windsor where, from the river, we had a 
splendid view of the castle. We stopped at five-thirty hoping 
we might be in time for Vesper Services in St. George's 

134 



Chapel, but were told that since a week ago, when some Ger- 
mans had been caught trying to poison the water, visitors had 
not been allowed to go within the Castle walls. Took a bus to 
Slough, passing through Eton, and from Slough caught the 
six-ten to London. Went to seven o'clock services at the 
Belgrave Presbyterian Church and heard a Westminster 
student preach. 

Not a fort at Liege has yet fallen and the intervention 
of the French Cavalry has had the result of keeping the Ger- 
mans for eight days on the line of the Meuse so the French 
have not been hindered in their mobilization. The death, 
probably suicide, of General Von Emmich, commander of 
the German forces, is confirmed and there is supposed to be 
demoralization among the German troops at Liege and sev- 
eral soldiers have drowned themselves in the Meuse. 

In the south the French are still advancing on the 
Vosges. They have entered the Saales region and occupy 
that town. Russian victories on the Dniester are reported, 
and two Austrian regiments annihilated. 

Bombardment of Belgrade continues every night. A 
force of four hundred thousand Austrians made an attack on 
Servians and were able to cross the Save near Shabatz and 
the Drina near Lobintza, but not the Danube. 

Owing to general reprobation of the German Govern- 
ment for demanding from Jules Cambon, the French Am- 
bassador at Berlin, thirty-six hundred marks for his journey 
to the frontier, the money has been returned to him. There 
is a most remarkable instance of courage on the part of Cor- 
poral Lupin. The Germans, having failed in a frontal at- 
tack, their ranks were suddenly broken to allow artillery to 
come up. Lupin exclaimed, "Leave them to me," and off 

135 



he dashed to the left of the German battery and sheltered 
behind a wall, he, at three hundred metres range took aim at 
the battery, and with his Mauser brought down first the chief 
officers, then under-officers and finally the gunners. Con- 
fusion reigned among the Germans who, in desperation, di- 
rected their last shell at the wall and made off, thinking a 
whole platoon had got behind them. The shell was effective 
and the wall collapsed, killing the hero. 

The Poles have been promised Home Rule by the Grand 
Duke Nicholas, commander-in-chief of the Russian Army, 
in return for their loyalty. 

The Brown, Shipley bank is a great center for Ameri- 
cans just now and today I had a chance to see the New York 
and Philadelphia papers for the first time. It seems that the 
New York Exchange has closed on account of the unsettled 
conditions due to the outbreak of war. Then there were 
columns upon the subject of the "poor, destitute Americans 
without trunks, food or money" which we read, comfortably 
clothed and with money to spare, for our letter of credit in 
this bank is as good as gold. 

In the midst of the sensations of the European war, I 
came with a shock to the announcement of the death of Mrs. 
Wilson which took place on August 6th. Not having seen 
a paper from the states, I had not heard of her illness, and 
am overwhelmed at the thought of this personal sorrow, the 
greatest of all sorrows, coming to our President when the 
troubles of the nations have so increased his burden of cares 
and responsibilities. What superhuman strength it will take 
to go on with the burdens of today when his heart is torn 
with this very great grief. The death of Mrs. Wilson is truly 
a national loss, for she shared deeply the labors and great 
works of her husband. 

136 



Monday, August 17th. 

Beautiful and sunny. I went with Hilda to the Cunard 
office this morning and found it full of anxious people. On 
account of a change in the sailing schedule, that is, the add- 
ing of the Mauretania and Lusitania to the three already 
booked to sail, all of London seemed to have turned out to 
take their chances on these extra boats. There were four 
friends from Cleveland who hoped for a chance on the 
Mauretania as originally they had reservations upon her and 
thought of course now that she was really sailing they were 
safe, but the Cunard people seemed determined to hold 
rigidly to their plan of arranging their passengers according 
to original dates of sailings, and as these four were not due 
to sail until later in August, they will probably have to be 
content with Saxonia quarters. 

We lunched with Ed at the Berkeley Hotel, then took a 
taxi to the Zoo. There we saw a sight worth crossing the 
ocean for, more children than I have ever seen since leaving 
home, and accompanying each one seemed to be every uncle, 
aunt, cousin and grandparent, beside fathers and mothers by 
the score. They swarmed everywhere and the picture which 
fascinated me was to see the families, uncles, aunts and all, 
riding the camels, with the smallest child perched on the 
neck. Hilda drove with half a dozen children in a llama 
cart, and of course we bought tickets for our family to try 
the camel sensation, but the waiting line was so long, we gave 
up the idea of that treat for us and gave our tickets to a pair 
of little sisters. In the lion house there was hardly walking 
room, so many people had assembled to see the animals have 
their supper. There were steps of stone, rows of them, upon 
which the onlookers could sit. I do think the plans of the 



137 



gardens show much thought for the comfort of the visitors; 
the same seating arrangement is near the sea lions and they 
were soon to be fed. 

The bears have stone caves and slopes and plenty of 
water and really looked more comfortable at home than any 
zoo bears I have ever seen. Above the bears were the moun- 
tain goats climbing up and down stone mountains. From 
the top of our stone ascent, we looked down upon the ibis, 
such graceful creatures, of a delicate pink and white color- 
ing. 

The monkey house was full of amusement, one playful 
animal had entangled himself in a spool of thread and was 
having a great time undoing his mischief. Another, as hu- 
man to look at as any monkey could be, gazed at himself in 
a mirror and was busy arranging his bang. 

The grounds of the zoo were attractively planted, 
flowers and shrubs grew beautifully and the lakes and ponds 
seemed a happy and satisfactory place for the water animals. 
We returned to the city feeling as if we had been part of a 
real London holiday. 

The News does not show progress on the German side. 
The French have pushed their lines forward somewhat in 
Alsace and Lorraine, having taken Thann about fourteen 
miles from Muhlhausen. An engagement between French 
and Austrian fleets took place in the Adriatic with the result 
of sinking one Austrian ship, while the rest of the Austrians 
were driven back into their own ports. Indications are that 
Russian mobilization is growing more rapidly than antici- 
pated and in addition to the army operating against Austria, 
they have a force of eight hundred thousand ready to strike 
Germany. 

138 




AT THE LONDON ZOO 



Tuesday, August 18th. 

Gorgeous day. Went early to the dressmaker's and at 
eleven-fifteen, with Hilda, took the train for Marlow. We 
changed at Bourne End, reaching Marlow at twelve-thirty. 
Hilda with her book "Rambles on London" guided me 
through the tiny town of Marlow down to the river where 
we found the tow path which was to furnish our day's walk, 
and it proved to be the best walk I have ever known, for it 
was so pleasant to stroll miles upon sod and mostly by the 
cool water side which turned and twisted and went through 
locks occasionally, always lovely to look at. We saw more 
flowers today than Sunday, forget-me-nots and much catnip 
and other sweet smelling herbs. 

Not far from the town of Marlow we passed Bisham 
Abbey in Norman Tudor style, now a residence but formerly 
a prison. Queen Elizabeth lived there for three years in the 
reign of her sister. 

It was a joy on these paths to have no automobiles to 
watch out for. Cows were everywhere but did not mind us 
any more than we did them. We passed through one pasture 
of forty fine looking milk producers. No wonder our cream 
in England is so delicious, with such pasturage. 

We entered Henley, ending our nine-mile walk in time 
to have tea and cake before taking the five-thirty-three train 
home, Ed joining us at Maidenhead where he had spent the 
day at golf. 

The evening papers sounded full of new excitement and 
we read them, learning that after nine days of complete 
secrecy, the English Press is just beginning to disclose the 
whereabouts of the English army. Such conservatism is al- 

139 



most unprecedented in the history of any press and great 
credit is given to the fine loyalty and management of the 
British Press. Every day since we have been in England, 
we knew that the English were quietly sending their troops 
across the channel, but not a word of it was printed in the 
English papers, while upon the continent her moves were 
freely discussed. 

News from Boulogne dated August 9th and just 
printed today says, "The boats are arriving from New Haven 
and within three days there will be ten thousand troops from 
across the channel. A large contingent have been prepared 
for on the great historic green where the column of Na- 
poleon is erected. The fodder for the horses, water and pro- 
visions are all in readiness." 

Last Saturday, Sir John French reached Paris with 
thousands of Parisians to welcome him. Flowers were 
thrown at him and everywhere "Vive l' Angleterre" was 
shouted. It must have been an inspiring sight. The Gen- 
eral had a conference with President Poincare, after which 
he left in a motor to rejoin his army. 

From Belgium we learn the headquarters of the gov- 
ernment have been transferred from Brussels to Antwerp. 
At Gembloux a party of Uhlans fell into an ambush laid by 
Belgian cyclists and several Uhlans were killed and 
wounded. 

Since yesterday the Germans have adopted a purely de- 
fensive attitude, are entrenching themselves and moving with 
caution. The French papers say they have pushed the Ger- 
mans back from the Chambray to the Belfort line and hold 
a firm footing in Alsace and Lorraine. 



140 






SCENES ALONG THE THAMES 



The Brazilian Minister of Foreign Affairs has tele- 
graphed from Rio de Janeiro instructing the Brazilian min- 
istry in Berlin to ask for explanations regarding the brutal 
attack upon Senor Bernardino Campo and his wife by Ger- 
man soldiers, who are said to have battered and robbed them, 
then cast them over the Swiss frontier. 

Three regiments of the Austrians were cut up by the 
Servians near Shabatz, August 16th and 17th which will 
make it more difficult for Austria to resist the Russian ad- 
vance upon her northern frontier. 



141 



Wednesday, August 19th. 

A lovely day to motor, the sun was bright and the air 
deliciously fresh and cool. We had almost given up our 
idea of automobiling in England with the war cloud hang- 
ing over the country, but the government's plea to the tourists 
is to carry out their original plans and help business along, 
and we found so many motors with nothing to do, we have en- 
gaged one for a two days' trip into the Shakespeare country. 
We started in a Daimler, Ed, Hilda, Miss R. and I, in the 
forenoon, and were soon leaving the city, across the Putney 
Bridge through Putney Heath and Kingston. 

In three quarters of an hour we had reached Hampton 
Court and could not resist stopping to see the gardens, al- 
though it was not the day to visit the Palace. Our entrance 
was through the Lion's Gate erected by Queen Anne, then 
into the loveliest combinations and varieties of flowers im- 
aginable. There were gorgeous beds of the large bulbous 
begonia, a delicate shade of pink, bordered with a gray foli- 
age plant, then there were very tall pink verbenas with 
equally high heliotropes, yellow snapdragon and lavendar 
salvia and the most fragrant small white flowers which 
seemed to belong to the gardenia family. 

On the south side of the Palace we peeked through a 
hole in the wall and saw the Dutch garden attractively laid 
out in beds full of bright blossoms, looking the picture of 
thrift and neatness. 

The famous Hamburgh grape vine was in the conserva- 
tory ; its history goes back to 1768 when it was planted by Sir 
Lancelot Brown. The trunk is a wonder to see, thirty-eight 
inches in circumference, the branches running from it, with 
their delicious purple grapes fill the entire hot house. 

142 



We went into only one of the fine old courts of the 
Palace, the Fountain Court built by Wren. On its south 
wall we could see the faintest signs of what were frescoes, 
illustrating the Labours of Hercules. 

Hampton Palace is the largest Royal Palace in Great 
Britain, founded in 15 15 by Cardinal Wolsey, the favorite 
of Henry VIII. It was presented by him to the King and 
has been occupied by Cromwell, the Stuarts, William III and 
the first two kings of Hanover. 

In 1604 the Hampton Court Conference between the 
Puritans and Episcopalians met here under James I as mod- 
erator. Under Queen Anne the Palace was the scene of the 
event celebrated in Pope's "Rape of the Lock." The present 
apartments built by Sir Christopher Wren are now used by 
aristocratic pensioners of the crown. We saw through the 
open windows what seemed to be practice for first aid to the 
wounded. Many nurses and apparently their pupils were 
moving about among beds and surgical tables. It is quite 
obvious that they are preparing to care for British soldiers. 

From the gardens are wide avenues of horse chestnuts, 
pines and cedars. We tried the intricacies of the Maze while 
the guide stood at the top of some stone steps and when he 
thought it necessary, directed us. It was fun to see his en- 
thusiasm, and although our time should have been short at 
Hampton, considering the length of our day's trip, each of 
us had to mount the steps and have a bird's eye view of his 
Chinese puzzle before he would let us out. 

Outside of the gates once more, we had a glimpse of 
Bushy Park and the splendid horse chestnuts and limes 
planted by William III, and spied a few of the deer, so tame 
that they welcome visitors. 

143 



Through Windsor and Eton we drove, arriving at 
"Skindles" in Maidenhead in time for luncheon; it was a 
delicious collation of cold meats, a sweet and Devonshire 
cream. 

Through Oxford we drove slowly and saw what we 
could of the outside of some of those splendid old college 
buildings and churches. At Woodstock we stopped in front 
of the gates of Blenheim Castle, the home of the Duke of 
Marlborough. The inscription on the gate told us of the 
monument, erected by his widow, of which we had a beauti- 
ful view from the castle after our walk there. We passed 
under the shade of huge oaks after reaching the house, and 
at the entrance of the gardens stopped to play with real Blen- 
heim spaniels, a whole family of them. 

The gardens were full of bloom and very lovely. We 
walked past them to the other side of the castle where we saw 
magnificent Cedars of Lebanon and pines and spruces of 
silver gray. In the distance lay the prettiest little lake. 

In front of the castle we stood off for a view of its im- 
posing Corinthian portico with projecting wings on either 
side. It was built by Vanbrugh and given to the first Duke 
of Marlborough in recognition of his numerous victories, 
a sum having been voted by Parliament for the building of 
the palace. Passed Rosamond's Bower, interesting to read- 
ers of Scott's novel, "Woodstock," constructed by Henry II. 
We followed the cows of Marlborough along the cool 
stream, up a shady path to the gates and into our motor again. 

We found the gate house in which Princess Elizabeth 
was confined by her sister Mary, the home of Chaucer and 
the house in which Edward, the Black Prince, son of Ed- 



144 




STRATFORD-ON-AVON— The Five Gables and Shakespeare Hotel 




STRATFORD-ON-AVON 



ward III was born. The town is full of quaint little houses 
and seems to have for its industry, leather gloves. 

From quaint houses we passed to unique signs. In one 
small town was the "Inn of the Quiet Woman," not far from 
this original shelter was a house advertising "Teas and well 
aired beds." But Stratford was our destination and we 
stopped for neither of these attractions. 

Reaching the town of Stratford a little before six we had 
just time for a walk before dinner. Through a street full of 
half-timbered houses, we came to an entire row given up to 
almshouses, looking so clean and well kept with pots of ger- 
aniums in the windows. The entire town seems to breathe 
the very atmosphere of Shakespeare and 1564. Every little 
shop is filled with really attractive (not cheap and ordinary) 
souvenirs of its poet, busts of him, volumes one inch in 
length and width of every play, with remarkably good print, 
and stories of his life in books of many sizes and bindings. 
We saw the Harvard House of 1596, the home of Katherine 
Rogers, mother of John Harvard. The sign above the door 
tells us that the house was restored by Marie Corelli and 
presented to Harvard in 1909. 

Our Inn is filled with prints from Shakespeare's plays. 
Each bed-room is named after one of the plays. Hilda and 
Miss R. were put in Henry VTs room, while Ed and I 
slept in the bed-room of Titus Andronicus under the picture 
and verses from Act IV, Scene I : 

Boy: "Help, Grandsire, help! My Aunt Lavinia fol- 
lows me everywhere, I know not why. 
Good Uncle Marcus, see how swift she comes I 
Alas, sweet Aunt, I know not what you mean." 
Marcus: "Stand by me, Lucius; do not fear thine 
Aunt." 

145 



In the evening we were fortunate in finding tickets for 
"Much Ado About Nothing" and enjoyed every moment of 
it. Miss Dorothy Greene and Mr. F. B. Benson were the 
stars of a really splendid company. The English do know 
how to do Shakespeare with real Shakespearean spirit. 
Usually at this season there is not a room to be had in the inn 
unless engaged long beforehand, nor, I imagine are tickets 
available, but with England in this state of war, tourists are 
not traveling as usual. 



146 




STRATFORD-ON-AVON— Ann Hathaway's Cottage 




STRATFORD-ON-AVON— Garden of Shakespeare's House 



Thursday, August 20th. 

In the morning we walked to the house of Shakespeare 
and never have I been more impressed with the genuine hon- 
esty of the guides, both men and women. The desk, sup- 
posed to be used by Shakespeare, we were told, could hardly 
have been his, it was so large ; far more likely to have been 
that of the school master. Chairs supposed to date back to 
the life of Shakespeare could hardly have been quite so old, 
etc., etc., but of the precious documents proving the scholar- 
ship of the real William they were justly proud. When the 
free schools of Stratford were given their charter in 1482 
what doubt can be left in one's mind that Shakespeare took 
every advantage of the school, and away with the Baconian 
theory that claims the bard was wholly uneducated. 

The original manuscripts were among the most inter- 
esting relics of the Museum. The "Venus and Adonis," 
second edition of 1594, is of splendid paper and print, also 
the "Comedies and Tragedies" of 1623. The watch showing 
how time had to be told until watches were made in 1597 
was of great interest too. 

Up-stairs we saw the Stratford Portrait of Shakespeare, 
probably painted from a bust in the eighteenth century, and 
there we met Miss Mary Rose. It was a pleasure to talk with 
this very delightful woman, so loyal to her noted townsman, 
and hard to tear ourselves away from her and the opportunity 
to hear her enthusiastic tributes to him. She put into our 
hands her Baconian Myths, "Notes on Two Great English- 
men and Their Defamers," a paper she had just lately writ- 
ten and read before the "defamers" in conclusion of which 
she says, "May we not all venture to believe that the estima- 
tion in which a man was held by life-long friends, daily fel- 

147 



low-labourers and men of letters, who wrote appreciatively 
of his great genius and immediately after his death, should 
carry more weight than the theories of critics who did not 
come into the world until more than two hundred years after 
Shakespeare had left it." 

We were also told by Miss Rose that our George Wash- 
ington, the idol of all American school boys, was being shat- 
tered and that the children of the next century would be con- 
sidered uneducated if they believed in such a myth. 

From the doorstep we looked out into the garden, a 
lovely mass of bloom of the flowers mentioned in Shake- 
speare's plays. 

Before saying good-bye to the inn, we bought silk sweat- 
ers for the family ; they are so beautifully made and far more 
reasonable than those in the London shops. 

Our drive through the town took us past the house of 
Marie Corelli and to the church of the Holy Trinity, beauti- 
fully situated among the trees on the bank of the Avon. We 
walked up the entrance, made almost dark by the shade of its 
beautiful trees and saw the cemetery on either side of us. We 
had to content ourselves with an outside view of this church 
and its picturesque tower of the twelfth century, for services 
were being held inside and as that is where the tombs of 
Shakespeare and Anne Hathaway are, we had to miss seeing 
them. 

Next, at Anne Hathaway's house, I found to my disap- 
pointment the very attractive little woman who had shown 
us about nineteen years ago, had died the year after we vis- 
ited her. She was Mary Barker, a relative of Anne Hatha- 
way. There were, however, two very nice English girls who 



148 



took us through every corner of that dear little house, from 
the bed-rooms with the old bed and quilt and rush mattresses, 
into the scullery and kitchen with its splendid chimney and 
bake oven, showing us with great pride the actual worn 
bench, stiff and straight and obviously uncomfortable, where 
our poet did his courting. 

From the Shakespeare country we drove up the river 
road to Warwick upon a hill rising from the river. It is a very 
ancient town, having been occupied by the British before the 
Romans. Two of its old gates, East and West, still remain, 
We walked up a beautifully shaded avenue of trees, different 
from most of the other approaches to chateaux and palaces, 
for instead of being straight, it curved most attractively, 
and we did not see the castle until we were almost upon it. 
In entering beneath the ivy-covered portcullis, the guide 
showed us the holes by which the defenders could pour down 
hot lead or other scalding liquids. Behind this first defense 
was a second defense through which the bullet balls flew. 
Before we entered the castle, the guide pointed out Elfrida's 
tower of 915 near the battlements, part of which was thrown 
up by the Danes in those days. We were shown first into 
the chapel of the XIV century, following such a large crowd 
of tourists that we fairly filled the chapel, but I did have a 
good view of a most interesting Flemish window of red and 
yellow in which the table of the Last Supper is shown to be 
round. At the end of the hall outside is a fine large picture 
of Mrs. Siddons by Reynolds. In a large room at the end 
of the hall is a beautiful Venetian mirror, a portrait of Henry 
VIII by Franz Holbein, the younger; a "Boar Hunt" by 
Rubens, also his "Four Evangelists." It was here that the 
guide told us the castle was given to Sir Folk Grenville by 
James II. In another room was a bay window full of vases 



149 



and statuettes that belonged to Queen Anne. On the wall 
hung unusual Brussels tapestries of Mediaeval gardens and 
the room contained two fine cabinets of Boule work, of the 
time of Louis XIV. 

The cedar drawing room is a perfect gem, particularly 
interesting as some of its decorating was done by local 
artists. On one of its beautiful paneled walls hangs Van 
Dyke's lovely "St. Croce," his "Charles I," his "Duke of 
Buckingham," also a portrait of the Earl of Warwick. Our 
attention was especially called to the portrait of Henrietta 
Maria, wife of Charles I; the upper part was painted by 
Van Dyke and the lower portion below the waist was finished 
by Reynolds. Looking most carefully, we could see the 
dividing line. 

There was a fine alabaster vase, also a portrait of a 
friend of Van Dyke's ; the friend had lost an arm, which loss 
the artist did not wish to show, so he has most cleverly painted 
over the missing portion a drapery of a gorgeous red. 

Two Boule cabinets, one inlaid in brass, the other silver, 
were also in this splendid room. 

The Green Room had a magnificent table of lapis lazuli 
and Carnelian under glass. A secret stairway used to lead 
from this room to other parts. Lastly we came to the Baro- 
nial Hall which is used by the family who, at present, are 
renting the castle. There we saw whole suits of sixteenth 
century armor, the actual piece worn by Lord Brooke who 
was killed at Litchfield, the helmet of Cromwell, sword and 
relics of the legendary Count of Warwick, the armor of 
Bonny Prince Charlie, also a tiny one that belonged to the 
son of Dudley of Leicester, who was crippled and called 
the Imp. The oldest part of this room goes back to 1300. 

150 




WARWICK— Caesar's Tower 



The roof is modern, having been reconstructed since its fire 
of 1871. 

Outside in the velvety grass court, we had a better 
chance to see how completely within the walls we were. The 
formidable towers, that of Caesar being one hundred and 
fifty feet high, the long line of battlements and huge butt- 
resses made us easily imagine, with this defense, the import- 
ant and successful part played by the Parliamentarians dur- 
ing the Civil War. 

We had a peek at the Warwick vase found in Hadrian's 
Villa at Tivoli, now protected by the shelter of a conserva- 
tory. 

It was only a short four miles to Kenilworth, along a 
beautiful road past Guy's Cliffe and Blacklow Hill. We 
forded a small ditch and were soon at its gate house. The 
whole castle and grounds are so filled with Sir Walter Scott's 
story that his description is most fitting: "At length the 
princely castle appeared, upon improving which and the 
domains around, the Earl of Leicester, it is said, expended 
sixty thousand pounds sterling, a sum equal to one-half mil- 
lion of our present money, etc., etc." "This great fortress in 
Midlands" was visited by more Royalty than any other. 
King John, while there, built Lunn's tower. When war 
broke out between Henry III and the Barons, Kenilworth 
was held by Henry Gifford for Simon de Montfort and after 
his death in 1265, it was besieged by King Henry III. The 
defenders, called Robber Knights, under Henry de Hast- 
ings, held out for six months, until 1266, when, through star- 
vation, they had to surrender. Later, Thomas, son of the 
Earl of Lancaster, when he rebelled against his cousin, 
King Edward II, was beheaded. The brother of the unfor- 



151 



tunate Thomas made Edward II his prisoner and we saw the 
tower in which this ill-fated king was imprisoned after hav- 
ing signed his abdication to the crown. He was afterward 
murdered at Berkley Castle. Also in the same tower — 
Caesar's — Robert Bruce was kept and watched the fate of 
the spider. 

From the time of Henry IV it became a Royal residence 
and so continued until the reign of Elizabeth who gave it 
to her favorite Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester. We saw 
the remains of the wing in which her royal apartments were, 
the Banquet Hall adjoining in Mervyn's Tower, in which 
she was entertained at the rate of a thousand pounds a day. 
Also a dressing room of Elizabeth's. It was in this room, 
our guide told us, Leicester was asked to give an account of 
himself for the lies he had told of Amy Robsart. 

Steps to the right of the hall led us to the room in which 
this lady lived. We passed by Mervyn's tower on the way 
to the Tilt Yard, the name supposed to be taken from 
some unhappy prisoner who languished there. Although 
the room in its upper story was only fifteen feet in diameter, 
the walls were of tremendous thickness. 

The road to Leamington was our next route. Situated 
on the Learn, this clean and well-kept town is renowned for 
its sulphurous springs. I can imagine what a delightful 
center for touring in England it must be. It was here we 
lunched. A long afternoon's ride, uneventful, but full of 
the charm of the English country, brought us to our London 
hotel in time for a late dinner. 

The news does not look encouraging. Brussels has 
been left defenseless, and the next bulletins will undoubtedly 



152 



M 

•z 
r 

o 

o 

> 

co 

H 




say the Germans have entered, but after all, with the Belgians 
only removed further north, the French coming from south 
and west and the army of the Czar approaching, what else 
could the Germans do? The Belgians have left an unforti- 
fied city which they could not possibly have defended. 

Pope Pius X died today. He has been seriously ill these 
last weeks, and it is supposed that the distressing state of 
Europe at war has hastened his death. 



153 



Friday, August 21st. 

Went to Savoy rooms in the morning. The transporta- 
tion committee has done so well all the needy have accommo- 
dations. No transports will be sent from the United States 
to England, as tourists are so completely cared for that the 
committee has dissolved. We have also had our first news 
of our friend from Berlin, through Brown, Shipley. She 
sent them a postal from Holland saying to forward her mail 
to America, so she is one of the fortunate ones who was sent 
to Holland by a special train. 

Lunched at Cheshire Cheese, having our first taste of 
their delicious pigeon pie. Afterwards, with Miss R., went 
to the Wallace Collection at the head of Duke Street. It was 
closing time, unfortunately, before we had seen more than 
one room, but in that was the prize collections of pictures. 
Such fine ones! Reynold's "Strawberry Girl," "Love me, 
love my dog," Murillo's "Adoration of the Shepherds," a 
Hobbema Landscape, a picturesque family group of Coques 
and portraits by Lawrence and Romney. 

We ended the afternoon with tea at Fuller's on Regent 
Street. 

The news is true — the Belgians are prepared to sur- 
render Brussels to save further bloodshed, and the Mayor has 
appealed to the citizens to remain calm at the inevitable entry 
of the Germans. The allies wonder that the brave Belgians 
did not withdraw ten days ago. If the Germans do enter the 
capital now it will delay their march to Paris, the fundamen- 
tal idea of their plan, while the Belgian army by falling back 
upon Antwerp, obtains the support of a great fortress. Brus- 
sels was of no strategic importance. Antwerp has an out- 



154 



ward ring of fifteen armored forts and an inner ring of 
eleven forts. Unlike Liege, it is surrounded by a continuous 
chain of works, so that if the assailant should penetrate be- 
tween the forts he cannot enter the town. Altogether if any 
fortress is impregnable, it is that of Antwerp. The Belgian 
supplies can come by sea, so food is assured. 

In Lorraine, the French are making slow headway, as 
they are confronted by a strong German force, strongly en- 
trenched. Their front runs from Delme through Mohange 
to the Vosges and the commanding height of the Donon. In 
Alsace, the Germans have retaken the village of Luneville, of 
not much importance, but once more the French have driven 
the Germans out of Muhlhausen, the greatest manufactur- 
ing city of the province. Two important factors are coming 
more and more into play each day, economic pressure ex- 
erted by the British fleets' blockade of Germany's coast and 
military pressure by advance of Russia's armies from the 
east. Russians have reached Gumbinnen, a town of fifteen 
thousand in eastern Prussia, after three days' fighting, also 
proceeding against Bukovina, an Austrian province. The 
Servians have had a victory at Shabatz and Servians and 
Montenegrins are invading Bosnia. 

Antwerp now becomes a base of operations from which 
the Belgian Army can threaten the flank of Germans pene- 
trating into Belgium, while the Germans will either have to 
lay siege to Antwerp — a formidable operation, or to cover 
themselves against the Belgian Army, detaching a force for 
this purpose which must seriously weaken their offensive 
strength against the allied army to the south. 



155 



Saturday, August 22nd. 

Went out only for a short time in the afternoon. 
Through some narrow little streets near St. James, we found 
the London Museum and there spent a most interesting 
hour, going over the history of England which is arranged 
in such chronological order, that from the days of the Paleo- 
lithic and Neolithic man, Romans, Danes, Saxons and Nor- 
mans, the rulers in perfect line take us to the present kings. 
After having seen the pictures of what the supposed stone 
men must have been, the implements they cut, we saw how 
England looked at its Glacier period, also the bones of the 
mammoth cave lion and wooly rhinoceros. Then room 
after room of kings and queens, their charters and acts. We 
saw the wooden cradle of Henry IV, the model of two full 
rigged ships which James II used in reconstructing the navy. 
One room had a cabinet full of most exquisite designs of 
precious stones which were found in a casket only nineteen 
months ago somewhere in this city, I could not quite make 
out from the guide just where, as he was more interested in 
just what my country is going to do in this international war. 
I told him we had done our best for the Cubans in the Span- 
ish-American War and had had our hands full of Mexican 
troubles, but that did not satisfy the Britisher, so I turned 
him over to Ed and absorbed myself in the Court costume 
room. I saw Queen Alexandra's and King Edward's coro- 
nation robes, also the Queen's going-away gown and the 
robes of Queen Mary and King George. 

The Evening Standard says the Germans will not oc- 
cupy Brussels but simply march through the town. 

Services were held this afternoon at St. Columbia 
(Church of Scot) for Lieutenant-General Sir James Geier- 
son, who died on his way to join the French. 

156 



London Times dated Friday reports French troops have 
advanced into Lorraine along the whole front from Donon. 
The advance guard entered Delme, Dieuze and Morhange 
yesterday, then fell back upon the main body, for the French 
troops, having fought six days uninterruptedly, found the 
superiority of the enemy such that they could have kept Lor- 
raine only at the price of more loss of life. 

General Pau's advance against Muhlhausen was clever- 
ly managed. Once master of Thann and Dieuze, by a 
bold movement, he brought his troops to the west of Muhl- 
hausen leaving the enemy free to manoeuvre between the 
French lines and the Swiss frontier. Then by a second ef- 
fort, the Germans were thrown back on Muhlhausen. At 
the same time French advanced on Altkirch, the left advanc- 
ing in the direction of Colmar and Neu Brisach, threaten- 
ing the enemy's line of retreat. The Germans were then 
obliged to give battle which was very hot. At Dornach, a 
suburb of Muhlhausen, the German losses were enormous, 
then while a part of the Army was occupied at Muhlhausen, 
the rest returned to Altkirch and forced the Germans to re- 
turn to the Rhine, which they crossed in great disorder. The 
French thus obtained their original object and it is explained 
in this edition why after their success of August eighth they 
had to retire. Their hearty reception on that evening made 
them forget they were in a hostile country, and it seems that 
the Alsatians, who were busy feting the soldiers, were Ger- 
man soldiers who were busy supplying the Germans in the 
rear with exact information regarding the numbers of the 
French. They then delivered a night attack from two points 
and the French, not caring to risk having their retreat cut 
off, retired. 

The Servians have driven the Austrians from Matschwa 
back again towards the bridge over the Drina, enormous 

157 



booty reported for Austrians. Austrians have been reported 
to have tried arming the Albanians for an attack on the 
Servian flank, but they will have to watch out for Italy, who 
will not endure Austrian interference in Albania. The Aus- 
trian fleet has had quite a panic ; for six hours they fired nobly 
and well at an enemy supposed to be advancing under cover 
of darkness and at the end of the time no enemy was found 
to exist. 

A reporter tells of his motor trip from Brussels to Ghent 
and the fugitives carrying their household goods he saw en- 
route. An Abbe from Louvain told him of the panic of that 
city. The Germans entered Louvain at nine o'clock Wednes- 
day morning and when the Abbe left, a few hours later, 
many houses were in flames. 

Before leaving Brussels, the Belgian authorities blew 
up the installation for wireless telegraph at Laeken, in order 
to prevent the Germans from utilizing it. 

At Ghent, he saw Major Gilson, the hero of the des- 
perate encounter at Aerschot, between a small body of Bel- 
gians and advancing Germans. Of three hundred men 
under this Major, only seven escaped without injury and he, 
himself, continued to encourage his soldiers after his nose 
had been shattered by a bullet. 

At Ostend, the town was found to be over-run with fugi- 
tives. 

No reply to Japan's ultimatum to Germany to evacuate 
Tsing-tao, naval port of Kiauchau, has been received, so 
Japan is making preparations to bombard. 

On August 20th the Germans entered the Belgian capi- 
tal after two o'clock without a shot being fired ; they found 
the civic guard disbanded and order being maintained by 

158 



simply ordinary police. At eleven, it was reported that an 
officer with a troop of Huzzars, bearing white flags, had 
halted outside the Louvain gate. The Burgomaster, M. 
Max, with his four sheriffs, was conducted to the German 
authorities. He started to explain the rights under war regu- 
lating the treatment of an unfortified capital, when he was 
roughly asked if he was prepared to surrender the city un- 
conditionally, otherwise it would be bombarded ; also he was 
told to remove his scarf of office. He did so and after brief 
discussion it was given back to him and he was told he would 
be held responsible for any act on the part of the populace 
against Germany. 

All morning the Belgians waited anxiously until two 
o'clock when the booming of cannon and music began the 
triumphal march, a scouting party of the Uhlans first, beside 
horse, foot, artillery and sappers, a procession of one hun- 
dred motor cars in which were mounted quick firers. rt Die 
Wacht am Rhein" and "Deutschland uber Alles" were 
sung by these legions of the man who has broken the peace 
of Europe. Among the cavalry were the famous Bruns- 
wick Death's Head Huzzars, all in gray instead of the bril- 
liant cherry color they formerly wore, guns and carriages 
were all gray. The force which marches through the city 
is estimated at from thirty-five to forty thousand, and behind 
them, probably a hundred and fifty thousand. Evidently 
they are enroute for Maubeuge, and a big battle must be 
pending. 

Eight million is the indemnity exacted from Brussels. 

The German reply to the Japanese ultimatum not yet 
received, but of the Jap students, a large number are leaving 
Berlin. The German Government was given until tomor- 
row to reply to Japan's demand that they leave Kiauchau. 



159 



Sunday, August 23rd. 

At Westminster Chapel heard Dr. Campbell Morgan 
in a beautiful sermon on the widow's mite. He quoted the 
little English girl who had sent the Prince of Wales fourteen 
pence half penny for his fund with a note saying how glad 
she was to be a British girl but how sorry she felt for the poor 
little German children. In the afternoon we rode in Hyde 
Park and heard a band play a combination of "Rule Brit- 
tania,' , the "Russian Hymn" and the "Marsellaise" and an 
unfamiliar part of their medley must have been Belgium's 
patriotic song. I wonder what the hurdy-gurdy men have 
done with their "Watch On the Rhine" which used to be 
such a favorite; we never hear a note of it now, but every 
evening the "Marsellaise" is played beneath our window. 

It seems quite certain the fifty thousand German troops 
who provided Brussels with its imposing spectacle on Thurs- 
day evening were the fresh troops who, for the last fifteen 
days have been forming behind the fighting screen and now 
intend to hurl themselves directly at France through the gap 
between Mons and Charleroi. 



160 




GLOUCESTER CATHEDRAL 



Monday, August 24th. 

In the afternoon I went with Hilda to Westminster and 
we looked over some of the tombs she had read of in the 
stories told in such an interesting manner by Mrs. Frewen 
Lord. The story of the blind Postmaster General interested 
Hilda especially. Henry Fawcett was shooting with his 
father at the age of twenty-five, when the father accidentally 
hit his son instead of the bird, in the eye. From that moment 
he never saw again ; from that moment also, he made up his 
mind he would do everything within his power to comfort 
his father and not to be a disappointed helpless man. Full 
of ambition to become a member of Parliament, he worked 
and studied until he obtained his membership, and later he 
was made Postmaster General. 

Sir John Franklin was a sailor and a great Arctic ex- 
plorer, who went nearer to the North Pole than any man had 
ever been before. He died on this third expedition and was 
buried in the far-away cold, but his wife has put up a monu- 
ment to him, which we saw in the Abbey. His epitaph by 
Tennyson is one of the most beautiful in the Abbey : 

"Not here! the white north has thy bones, 
And thou, Heroic sailor-soul 
Art passing on thine happier voyage now 
Toward no earthly pole." 

Then there was David Livingstone, the great mission- 
ary, who treated black men as his brothers, cared for them, 
doctored them and finally gave up his life to them. When 
he was buried in the Abbey, among the many white faces 
mourning for him were two of the faithful blacks who had 
traveled these many miles to be near their great friend. 



161 



The story of Sir James Outram and Sir Henry Have- 
lock, who relieved their besieged people at Lucknow were 
among these heroes, also Lord Lawrence, called the Savior 
of India, "Chinese Gordon," Lord Shaftesbury, the friend 
and protector of little children, Isaac Newton and many, 
many others. 

The south transept of the Abbey is, of course, full of 
interest as it is full of the poets, all our favorites from Geof- 
frey Chaucer of 1400 to Tennyson of our century. 

We ended our afternoon at Westminster by a walk in 
the beautiful cloisters and the Chapter House. 

On the way back to Almond's I went into a stationery 
shop to buy postal cards of the Royal family and the Eng- 
lishmen of most importance having to do with the war. The 
cards are sold in packages to help increase the Prince of 
Wales' Fund. In this store I found sets of lead soldiers, 
which I promptly bought to take home to Ted. There were 
the English in the khaki, French, Belgians and Russians, 
but not a sign of a German soldier for them to fight. I told 
the clerk how incomplete my war game would be without 
them and she answered, "But we would not be allowed to sell 
German soldiers, would we?" 

Dispatches show that the first and second British Army 
Corps were stationed in and about Mons and after the fight- 
ing which was heavy, the casualties, as far as are known, 
were two thousand. In the Battle of Waterloo, 18 15, the 
British losses were six thousand, nine hundred and thirty- 
two. The British Cruiser Gloucester chased the Goeben 
and Breslau among the Ionian Islands for two days and two 
nights, after they had run from Messina. She carried away 
half of the Breslau's funnel and put her aft gun out of action, 

162 



then escaped with only two boats on her davits being 
smashed. 

The atrocities of the Germans we hoped were much ex- 
aggerated. From a message of a commandant now wounded 
at Antwerp, it seems that not the grossest excesses have been 
overdrawn. Not only have the Germans sought the protec- 
tion of the red flag and then fired from its shelter again and 
again, and have fired from behind a white flag in the same 
manner, not only have they shot down their prisoners and 
non-combatants, who have tried to protect their towns, 
pushed women and children in front of their ranks for pro- 
tection, but in the little towns of Orsmael and Velme, they 
burned houses, barns and haystacks, destroyed furniture, 
looted money, hanged an old man, took two peasants from 
their farms, bound and shot them under the eyes of the wives 
and children. In Aerschot, where not a shot from the town 
was fired nor the least resistance made, the inhabitants were 
told to come out of their houses and march two hundred 
yards from the town. There without more ado, they shot 
M. Thielmans, the Burgomaster and his fifteen-year-old son, 
the clerk of the judicial board and ten prominent citizens 
and set fire to the town. 

In large towns like Brussels, these outrages have not 
been witnessed, the probable reason being that if the people 
in the small villages and country-side could be thoroughly 
terrorized, it would make it unnecessary to leave troops in 
occupation of smaller places. 



163 



Wednesday, August 26th. 

Shopped at Carter's Seed Store and Liberty's in the 
morning and finished the day in packing. 

The Times in speaking of the Russian advance says that 
their regiments have reached Marienburg on the Vistula, 
that the Germans retreated from Gumbinnen by forced 
marches, part of their forces assembling at Konigsberg. In 
Galicia the Austrians tried to prevent the Russians from 
crossing the Sereba but after a series of encounters, did not 
succeed. 

In Lorraine the right wing of the French forces have 
fallen back between Luneville and Nancy, but in Alsace 
the French have succeeded in repelling attacks against Col- 
mar. 

Zeppelins passed over Antwerp yesterday, dropping 
eight bombs, killing and wounding about fifteen people and 
damaging buildings. 

The Nizhui Huzzars, the famous swordsmen, are doing 
remarkable work for the Allies ; one of their squadrons cut 
down seventy Germans with a loss of only four men on their 
part. 

Battle of Charleroi from the Times, August 26th : Fairly 
big town, population twenty-five thousand, situated on 
Sambre, about twenty-three miles from Mons. Of great 
strategic importance on account of its canal connection with 
Brussels, also stands at the junction of many railroads. On 
the evening of August 18th, the French troops of all arms 
began pouring into the city. Many of the inhabitants started 
in trains to leave the city, the rest were told to keep indoors. 

164 



n 

x 

PI 

GO 

H 



Q 




The canal bridges were fortified with the French mitrail- 
leuses (quick firing guns like the British Maxim) ; also they 
were installed upon the roof of the station. An adventurous 
party of Death's Head Huzzars, under the leadership of a 
young lieutenant, calmly cantered down the streets of the 
town and were taken for English cavalry and cheered. They 
paid dearly for their recklessness for when the mistake was 
known, fifteen of their number were killed. 

Wednesday morning at seven, the commencement of the 
fiercest battle which has probably ever taken place began 
with a German shell crashing through the roof of the rail- 
way station. That started the bombardment of the upper 
town. French troops made a sortie, but finding the enemy 
in much greater force than expected, were forced to with- 
draw and the bombardment continued relentlessly. The 
Turcos, true to their reputation, with a bravery which must 
live in history, actually charged the German battery, bayo- 
netting the gunners. Their losses, it is feared, were greater 
than those of the Light Brigade at Balaclava ; from the bat- 
talion only one hundred returned unscathed. Their bravery 
proved powerless against the German advance which crept 
foot by foot to the heart of the city ; there the Times reporter 
says the carnage was indescribable, the roads became 
so jammed with the dead that the killed remained standing 
upright resting upon dead brothers. 

For two hours Germans fought for the bridge over the 
canal and after heavy loss, they captured it, then gained 
ground all along the line, capturing three other suburban 
villages. Later in the day the French turned their hail of 
artillery upon the lower portion of town, making a counter 
attack and under fire of their artillery, the infantry advanced 
slowly in the face of stubborn resistance of the city they had 

365 



evacuated, actually retaking some of the surrounding coun- 
try they had lost. At six o'clock in the evening the fighting 
ended with both sides completely worn out. 

Next morning before dawn the French artillery again 
bombarded Charleroi, indefatigable troops swarmed down 
the slope towards lower town, retaking five villages. The 
French found a good vantage ground for their mitrailleuses, 
placing them upon slag heaps — Charleroi being a mining 
district. The Germans placed theirs upon steeples, every 
one in town, but in the face of a withering fire from above 
and below, the French advanced, and after furious fighting, 
drove the Germans across the Sambre. 



166 



Thursday, August 27th. 

Left Almond's with real regret, we have been so com- 
fortable there. Mr. Brankeene, our Italian landlord, when 
I said good-bye to him, told me that he had received orders 
to be ready to serve his country if necessary, for border pro- 
tection. We passed by the Chelsea Barracks and saw sol- 
diers there, soldiers marching on the street, and in fact, 
everywhere we see the Khaki. 

Through Putney and Kingston and Cobham, then a 
lovely stretch of wooded road intermingling with masses of 
English heather; through the town of Guildford, whose 
shopping district is on a hill. 

Godalming was most quaint and interesting on account 
of its chartered school, moved from London here in 1872, 
and having had the honour of educating Thackeray. We 
caught a glimpse of this school quite a distance from our 
main road. Also the library has the original manuscript of 
The Newcomes. 

Hindhead, a hollow called by Dickens in Nicholas 
Nickleby, "Devil's Hollow," was our next town and gave 
us a glorious view of hills and farms, and in its vicinity lived 
Conan Doyle and Bernard Shaw. 

More stretches of evergreens and firs, then into Peters- 
field to see the Abbey Church built by William III in 1230. 
It was quite characteristic of Norman architecture and its 
yard was used, front and sides, for a cemetery. On one side, 
most curiously, grave stones were placed stiffly together in 
a row, making a sort of wall which hardly added to the 
beauty of the cemetery. 



167 



Upon entering Winchester we saw the familiar Alfred 
the Great in stone and through Norman gates of stone, which 
adds so much to the beauty of this little town. At the "God 
Begot" Inn, supposed to be the most quaint in England, we 
lunched. Then to the University of Wykeham founded five 
hundred years ago by William of Wykeham, a school which 
has always held to its old traditions. The number of students 
in the dormitories is only seventy, because the original num- 
ber was seventy, so although the seat of learning has grown 
to two hundred and fifteen, the seventy who can sleep within 
its walls are chosen by competitive examination. On the 
gateway to the outer court are carved statues of Wykeham, 
the Virgin Mary and Gabriel with his horn. In that court 
all students walk bareheaded until they become praeceptors. 
Their place for washing at the pump is called Moab, and at 
Edom the shoes are blackened. The students eat off of 
wooden trenches, sitting on oak benches before the elm tables 
of five hundred years ago. 

On a lawn of beautiful grass, modern games are played, 
but twice a year a walk to the top of St. Katherine's Hill is 
taken by the boys and the roll called there to commemorate 
the walk taken for necessary exercise daily in bygone times. 
The Chapel, of Perpendicular architecture, and the Cloisters 
are fine and upon the walls of the latter are tablets in memory 
of students. One from the Latin translation mentions the 
boy who went to heaven instead of to Oxford. Then there is 
the preparation room where the students sit in high-backed 
wooden seats. Also, their much prized trusty servant, a 
fresco of a creature with a snout for a mouth, padlocked so it 
would not speak evil, donkey ears which would refrain from 
hearing evil, and legs of the deer to run swiftly. 

Nearby, through a gateway, we saw the picturesque 

168 



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,\ y..V-.- S'jS*^ 



': 1, ^ :> #f; i '. ■ i 




WINCHESTER CATHEDRAL 



castle of Wolvesey, then passed an unpretentious yellow 
stone front which proved to be the dwelling in which Jane 
Austen spent her last days. 

The Cathedral is so complete in all its different styles of 
Norman, and Perpendicular Gothic, and never have I seen 
an altar screen more exquisite than that of this carved one. 
On top of the side screens to the choir were curious old 
mortuary chests containing probably bones of Saxon Kings 
before date of William the Conqueror, Canute, Egbert, etc. 
We saw brass tablets marking the place where Jane Austen 
was laid away — sweet peas had been placed there lately. 

In the Great Hall, the only remains of William the Con- 
queror's castle, we went only for a few moments to see on 
the wall the actual Round Table of King Arthur and hear 
the proofs of his champion, the present guide. He told us 
if such authorities as Henry III, John Harding, Henry V, 
also Marlowe and Sir William Portel mention it, why doubt 
its existence? In fact in 1487, Henry VII restored its twelve 
legs, central support and all. It was formerly at Tintagel 
and brought from there to Camelot which is now Win- 
chester. 

Through Winterbourne we saw the prettiest of all 
thatched houses, it seemed to me, for in this southern coun- 
try they appear to grow more and more picturesque. In 
Amesbury we caught a glimpse of a fine old Abbey Church 
among huge trees. It was at Amesbury that Gay wrote his 
"Beggars' Opera." But to go back to the lives of the Druids 
at Stonehenge was one of the most interesting hours of our 
day. Only ten miles from Salisbury we found the ruins of 
their old temples, saw their sacrificial stone and did not, at 
all, enjoy thinking of the lives of innocent babies probably 
used as offerings. About it was a flock of sheep now pas- 
tured, peacefully enjoying their grass in the security of 

169 



knowing no sacrificial stone awaits them. The Sun Stone 
was this year visited by a throng of Sun worshipers from 
India, but where and how could those Druids have carried 
their stones, such quantities of it? The keeper of Stonehenge 
told us it was a stone called Sarson which geologists have 
proved must have been brought all the way from Brittany. 

We arrived in Salisbury at sun-down and stopped at the 
County Hotel. Salisbury is full of soldiers; Ed was almost 
the only man in civilian clothes at dinner. 

The evening News says the English are becoming in- 
dignant over the secrecy of the British Press; as more troops 
are being sent across the channel daily and casualties are 
becoming greater, they feel they have a right to know some- 
thing of their countrymen ; also they maintain lack of such 
news will tend to hinder rather than help in the call of Lord 
Kitchener for more volunteers. The atmosphere seems 
heavy with depression at the practical fall of Namur. Two 
of its forts are in the hands of the enemy but six are main- 
taining a stout resistance. In spite of the most elaborate 
preparations at Namur, barbed wire entanglements charged 
with fifteen hundred volts of electricity and broken glass, the 
Germans held the city at eight o'clock Tuesday night. 

The Belgians, as has been the case right through the 
campaign, evacuated the town in order; all rolling stock and 
motor cars were removed and, as usual, the stationmaster 
left on the last locomotive with the cash box under his arm, 
thus three thousand passed under the protection of French 
lines and the protection of the cavalry screen. 

Requiem celebrated for the late Pope at Westminster 
Cathedral this morning. It is known that forty-four Cardi- 
nals have arrived for the conclave and when the balloting 
commences next Tuesday morning, sixty will be present. 

170 




..,^* 



SALISBURY CATHEDRAL 



Friday, August 28th. 

Gorgeous day. Walked to the Cathedral only five min- 
utes from our hotel. Through the Close gate into a most 
lovely expanse of velvet grass, and from this lawn we had 
our first view of this fine example of pure early English 
architecture of 1220 and its lofty tower and spire — the high- 
est in England. The morning sun lit up the tower and 
eastern sides of double transepts. Services were being held 
so we could only step inside the door and look down the long 
nave, most impressive with its splendid columns adorned 
with dark Purbeck marble, but so cold compared to every 
other cathedral I have seen, probably from its lack of stained 
glass windows, screens, monuments and chapels which 
Wyatt did away with at the close of last century. 

It seemed a shame not to see the choir nor lady chapel, 
for I know they are beautiful, but we had planned Bath for 
luncheon, so on we went. The drive was through quaint 
little towns again, that of Warminster seeming to have the 
most attractive cottages. Here we lunched at the Pulteney 
Hotel, very nice, then went into the Pump room and down 
into the remains of the old Roman Baths, supposed to have 
been founded by the Emperor Claudius. The baths in those 
days were as large and elaborate as possible and in the origi- 
nal hall, one hundred and ten feet long and sixty-eight feet 
wide is the large rectangular bath, partly roofed in by the 
Roman Terrace and there we saw parts of the ancient pipes 
and conduits. The bottom of the large bath is still filled with 
water as if quite ready to be used. The boiling spring bub- 
bles up, making its steam vapor all about and the present 
Pump Room makes daily use of it. Beneath the Terrace is a 
regular museum of the heads, busts and figures of all kinds 
which show the sculpture of those days. 

171 



The front of the Abbey Church with its ladders of climb- 
ing pilgrims interested us so we stepped inside and looked 
over some of the old monuments of its nave ; we were more 
than ever interested to find a monument to William Bingham, 
United States Senator, who died in 1804. The Church is 
known as the Lantern of England from the number and size 
of its windows. The men and women climbing up the ladder 
of the facade have suffered badly from weather and time. 
They have lost legs, arms and heads, but still climb upward. 

Our drive southward took us over the Cotswold Hills 
and landed us in Gloucester, on the Severn, at four-thirty. 
Passed by the corner of four main streets, the ground plan 
of Roman settlement. The Intercession Services which are 
being held all over the country on Fridays, were going on 
in the Cathedral so we had a chance to sit, with a good view 
of the nave and its Norman arches, and listen to the beautiful 
music, after which a guide took us through the choir and 
transepts. The latter are particularly interesting as the col- 
umns and arches show us the earliest approach to the Per- 
pendicular style engrafted upon the Norman framework, 
and quite unique are the curious flying arches which sup- 
port the tower. The choir too is a magnificent example of 
the pure Perpendicular and forms a kind of perpendicular 
cage inside the original Norman frame. 

The east window of the Cathedral is the largest in Eng- 
land, stained glass of the fourteenth century. The tomb of 
Edward II is a conspicuous spot in the choir and since it was 
first brought to the Cathedral, has been visited by many pil- 
grims. We saw at Kenilworth the tower in which the un- 
fortunate King was imprisoned before he was murdered at 
Berkeley Castle, also the tomb of Robert, duke of Normandy, 
son of the Conqueror. The cloisters are said to have no rival 
in England and I don't wonder; the fan vaulted roof is so 

172 



exquisite, but the walks are quite closed in instead of opening 
upon the grass court which, for me, detracts a little from 
their beauty. Outside we noticed the picturesque Deanery 
with its timber back dating from the twelfth or thirteenth 
centuries and within the Close a monument to Bishop 
Hooper, who was executed as a martyr on that spot. 

Another castle was in store for us and though it was six 
o'clock when we reached Chepstow, it seemed too fine an old 
ruin to pass by. From its gates we climbed up a hill before 
reaching its main part and came upon the most remarkable 
walnut tree I have ever seen, its branches extending from 
one wing of the castle to the other. Strong props supported 
these large and heavy branches and it was quite evident every 
care was given to preserve the tree. We climbed the steps as 
high as the remaining ruins would let us, and from their 
height saw the Wye with its banks, which are muddy at low 
tide, and the hilly surrounding country. The Castle is of 
the thirteenth century and its ruins are far more extensive 
than those of Kenilworth, being surpassed by no other in 
Great Britain, unless it be Conway. It has four courts. 
Jeremy Taylor was confined here in 1685 in one of the 
towers. 

From the little town of Chepstow we went through the 
lovely valley of the Wye until at eight o'clock we arrived at 
Tintern and were shown our rooms for the night in the 
quaintest little Inn of winding halls and stairways — the Beau- 
fort Arms. Part of it is two hundred years old but it is de- 
lightfully clean and comfortable and very much away from 
the world. We went to bed by candle light and heard only 
that there had probably been a sea fight with disaster to the 
Germans, and that troops from India were arriving upon 
the continent. 



173 



Saturday, August 29th. 

Tintern Abbey. On the loveliest of mornings we saw 
the ruins of the Abbey, its walls covered with ivy, pictur- 
esquely placed in the midst of a green meadow on the bank 
of the Wye. The building dates back to 1131, founded by 
the Cistercian monks, and of its ruins enough remains to 
show what a fine piece of decorative Gothic it was. 

Following the Wye in its lower valley, we passed 
through Monmouth where the Wye meets the Monnow, and 
there was a glimpse of Monmouth Castle reputed to be the 
birthplace of Henry V, the Prince Hal of Shakespeare. 

Crossing the river Monnow, we saw an interesting gate- 
way of the thirteenth century adjoining a Norman Chapel. 
Upon a hill we came to Ross, overlooking the Wye, with its 
picturesque perpendicular church, the spire easily seen from 
the distance. In this church is the tomb of John Hyrle, 
whom Pope has immortalized in his Man of Ross. 

Then came Hereford, a town full of old buildings and 
the castle of Wilton. It is an Episcopal city whose See dates 
from the seventh century. Its castle was built to hold the 
Welsh in check and although once the largest in England, 
only a few ruins now remain to tell the tale. 

Ludlow was our next ancient town, and here among 
its fine old wooden houses, we stopped for luncheon at the 
Three Feathers, an Inn of quaintness quite corresponding 
to the other old houses of its time. Ludlow, we found to be 
at the confluence of two rivers, the Teme and Corve. It 
used to be the seat of the Lords President of Wales, and 
their castle built in the twelfth century is a mass of fine ruins. 



174 




CHEPSTOW CASTLE 



Here it was that Milton wrote his Comus, to celebrate the 
appointment of the Earl of Bridgewater to office of Lord 
Marcher. 

Our route took us through Broomfield and Stokesay, 
the seat of another castle of the thirteenth century; in fact 
castles are becoming an hourly occurrence for us. Then 
through Craven Arms, Church Stretton, with its quaint 
market hall and built on a hill, into Shrewsbury with the 
Severn river on three sides of it. Full of narrow, steep streets, 
this town was overflowing with British soldiers, busy with 
their provision wagons. Formerly it was an important posi- 
tion on the Welsh march, now its importance as a military 
center is quite apparent. A few of its walls remain and there 
is a castle built in the days of William the Conqueror. 

We took the Welsh road from this point and were soon 
in a land of more castles and beautiful hills, these buildings 
having been necessary as defenses against the legions of the 
Kings of England. 

We reached the end of our day's trip at Llangollen, pro- 
nounced with "th," and on the bank of the Dee. At the Hotel 
Hand we spent the night. In the evening we walked into the 
attractive little tea garden on a slope of the bank of the river, 
with the falls near by. We found friends from home here 
and visited with them during the evening. 



175 



Sunday, August 30th. 

Overcast. In the morning we had a view up a hill eight 
hundred feet above and north of the town of the celebrated 
castle Dinas Bran, called Crow Castle, of such an age that 
the boldest historian has not dared hazard a guess at its 
origin. The character of the trenches shows them to be much 
older than the present ruins, probably the Castle was a 
stronghold of the early Britons when they first resisted the 
Romans. Then there is the Bridge of Llangollen of 1345, 
one of the sights of Wales. 

Through the vale of Llangollen the hillsides were cov- 
ered with woods and varied river scenery. We came to Cor- 
wen, an old-fashioned little town noted as the place where 
Owen Glendower assembled his forces before the battle of 
Shrewsbury and made a magnificent fight with his sturdy 
Welshmen to free his country from the foreigner's yoke. 

The Dee took us into Bala, on a lake of the same name ; 
one of the three largest natural lakes in Wales, with gently 
sloping moorlands, craggy headlands and a few trees. The 
cleanliness and industry of this town was quite apparent. It 
was a center in last century's non-conformist revival and still 
holds large Methodist meetings in its Calvinistic Methodist 
training college. 

Our way to Dolgelley took us through narrow curving 
roads, lined with beautiful trees and giving a glimpse of 
Snowdonian hills in the distance. We could see Cardigan 
Bay reaching out to the Atlantic and the Mawddach flowing 
into the bay near Barmouth. Ruskin says in his Modern 
Painters that the Mawddach estuary as seen near Barmouth 
affords one of the three finest prospects in all Europe. The 



176 



H 

M 

> 

W 
M 




town has the rare combination of having not only all the 
seaside advantages, but the mountainous scenery close by. 
On its cliffs, houses of stone climb up all along from the 
water side. 

From this sea resort we went along the shore until strik- 
ing inland, we came to Harlech and saw before us the for- 
midable Harlech castle, high-perched, foursquared and 
round-towered; the scene of some of the sternest sieges of 
English history. It was during the War of the Roses that 
the "March of the Men of Harlech" was written. Seventy 
miles farther on is Portmadoc. 

Out of Harlech we caught our first view of the distant 
Snowdon, the Punchbowl and its lesser mountain peaks. 
We reached the little town of Portmadoc just as the rain be- 
gan and fortunately three miles more brought us to the gates 
of Aberdunnant where Hilda had visited five weeks ago. I 
don't wonder she loved it! Through a woody entrance be- 
side a brook our way curved almost half a mile to the house, 
and there was the home I had heard so much of ; low roofed, 
rambling, three hundred years old and, best of all to Hilda's 
mind, haunted ! She has even heard the ghost knock at her 
door, which adds so much to the charm and mystery of the 
place. 

It was delightful to visit these hospitable friends who 
had rented Aberdunnant for the summer, to explore the cor- 
ners of that ancient house where not only the ghosts but bats 
occasionally wander in and out in the evenings. 

We had the pleasure of meeting an interesting Welsh 
family, from whom we learned that two of the brothers had 
answered the call to arms, the older going to Holyrood where 
the Irish troops were being received and forwarded, and the 

177 



younger to one of the larger transportation camps, leaving 
a family. They had prepared for trouble during the sum- 
mer, having had orders to be ready for Ireland in case of a 
revolution between Ulster and the Home Rule Party. Out 
of the small town of Portmadoc about a hundred men have 
already gone. The two horses of the Aberdunnant household 
have been sold for requisition, leaving only a little pony for 
riding and driving. 



178 




Mm-* 



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" Hi * PI i l^k? r £L 



^ i ^uijff PWf??*'** ^ * ^^^ 






l>'.,o' : ' 



LUDLOW— The Feathers Inn 



Monday, August 31st. 

The next morning the sun shone brightly and gave us 
a chance to see a little of the garden in beautiful August 
bloom, and I carried away a bunch of sweet lavendar in 
memory of this. We also took with us one of our hostesses, 
Hilda's friend. 

The road to Begdellert is along the side of the Welsh 
mountains with the glorious Snowdon still in view makes a 
never-to-be-forgotten ride. This little Welsh mountain vil- 
lage lies among the rugged peaks and is well protected on the 
north by the King of Mountains, Snowdon ; and the reputa- 
tion of the Royal Goat Hotel and its genial proprietor is far 
famed. 

Passing more lakes and streams, we came into Capel 
Curig, at the junction of three valleys of unpronouncable 
names. Bettws-y-Coed, our next village, was the culmina- 
tion of Welsh rocks, streams and glens with every attractive 
feature of landscape one can conceive of. 

After crossing a bridge over the river Conway, the lion 
of all Castles came into view, the town of Conway. The 
castle with its rugged mountain background looked as if it 
were well able to withstand its fierce sieges. Built by Ed- 
ward I in 1284, the castle played an important part in the 
Civil War, but was later surrendered to the Parliamentary 
forces. Conway has also a Tudor house with feudal gate- 
ways, Plas Mawr, which should not be forgotten. 

Another glorious ride through woodland, rocks and 
glade and we plunged once more toward the Atlantic and 
came to Llandudno, the most fashionable of Welsh watering 
places. Through Rhuddlan and past more castles, we came 

179 



to Holywell, named for the sacred well of St. Winifred. The 
well was supposed to have risen from the spot where the head 
of the Saint fell to the ground, cut off by a Pagan Prince 
whose advances she had rejected. Catholic pilgrims still 
visit here. 

Our last Welsh town was Hawarden, noted for its 
Castle, the home of the Right Hon. Gladstone. Within the 
picturesque park are the ruins of another old castle, from 
the top of which one can have a good view of the river Dee. 
We lunched opposite the castle, at Glynne Arms, where we 
had a rather slim repast after our long morning drive. 

From Hawarden it was only six miles to Chester, the 
old Roman town, on the right of the river Dee, surely the 
most mediaeval looking town in all of England. On three 
sides of the city are parts of the Roman walls upon which 
one can walk and have a good view of the town. Then there 
are the Rows, arcade-like rows of shops found in four of the 
main streets and in the best specimens of old timber-built 
houses imaginable. 

Arrived in Liverpool, the city of docks, at the Midland 
Adelphi in time for dinner, having completed one hundred 
and eight miles today. 



180 




THE SWALLOW FALLS— Bettws-v-Coed 




CONWAY CASTLE AND BRIDGE 



Thursday, September 3rd. 

On board S. S. Laconia. For three days we have been 
on the ocean, each mile taking us nearer home and further 
from the European war scene. Thanks to Mr. Marconi, we 
have had news from the fighting line; without it I fear we 
would have been a restless boat full of passengers, so accus- 
tomed were we to daily reports. 

The Laconia is taxed to its utmost and is carrying alto- 
gether about two thousand souls. At first there were three 
dining hours for the first cabin, and how those stewards man- 
aged with their hungry passengers is a mystery to me, and 
yet they did manage cheerfully and well and their efforts to 
satisfy the crowd should never be forgotten. Today they 
have tried the plan of putting some of the tables in the hall, 
and by crowding a little more in the dining-room, we have 
been able to do away with the third dining hour. 

Yesterday we made the stop at Queenstown and the 
women with their Irish lace came on board as usual; they 
seem to have been cordially received and I hope their earn- 
ings will be a real help in these troublous times. 

* 

The Cork papers sold as quickly as hot cakes and we 
read of the success of the Allies, their line from Belgium 
down to Verdun, being quite intact, while in the Vosges and 
in Lorraine they are gradually advancing. A German bi- 
plane dropped a few bombs at Port St. Martin, but no dam- 
age resulted. 

There was real excitement yesterday afternoon at five- 
thirty when, as we were just leaving the Irish Coast, a Cruiser 
appeared and began to signal us. She carried no flag as far 



181 



as we could see and although every pair of glasses was im- 
mediately focussed upon her, we could make out nothing of 
her nationality nor purpose. At six o'clock the Laconia 
came to a full stop for a few minutes while our Captain held 
a signal conversation with the other boat. Every man, 
woman, child and steward assembled on the starboard side 
of our boat and there they stood quite tense and silent until 
the Laconia was again under way. Then the surmises broke 
loose, was the Cruiser a German, did she want our coal or 
us, or was it one of the British Navy, instructing our officers 
as to the course we should take? Apparently it was the lat- 
ter for we kept on pointing steadily westward. 

Our portholes are blanketed at night, and the rule of 
leaving no lights burning in our staterooms is strictly en- 
forced, nor are there any lights on deck. A notice even asks 
the men to refrain from striking matches for their 
cigars while on deck. The Laconia is gray from top to bot- 
tom, and I am most thankful in the fog of last night and to- 
day the fog horns are allowed and have blown lustily. It is 
not wholly pleasant to think of what might be the fate of a 
gray steamer running in the thickness of a gray fog and I 
understand on the trip over from America, the Captain was 
not allowed to use the horn. 

The knowledge that we have on board a passenger who 
lost her daughter in the burning of Louvain casts a gloom 
over the entire ship and makes one furious with anger at the 
thought of such an outrage. 

Today's wireless says that the French Government has 
been transferred to Bordeaux, the reason being that Paris is 
becoming the pivot of operations of both armies. The Ger- 
man army is advancing upon Paris and is now only forty 



182 



a 
a 
o 

r 

H 
> 

a 

o 

a 
o 
2 




miles off. English families have arrived at Ghent, having 
been expelled from Brussels under the terms of the new Ger- 
man decree. 

In East Prussia, the Russians are investing Konigsberg, 
and in Austria they have routed four Austrian army corps 
near Lemberg. 

Lord Kitchener's second one hundred thousand men is 
well beyond the half-way mark and Cardinal Delia Rhiese 
has been elected Pope with the title of Benedict XV. 



188 



Sunday, September 6th. 

The fog has been with us again, but cleared and we had 
a really beautiful sunset. 

The most eventful part of the days has been the wireless 
bulletins and it was with great relief that we read of the Ger- 
mans' march on Paris being checked and her position enor- 
mously weakened ; in fact the report is that the German cen- 
ter is retiring towards the left. 

Lemberg in Galicia has been taken by the Russian 
Army, and the Russians have captured seventy thousand 
prisoners, guns, artillery and food supplies. 

Long before ten-thirty this morning the lounge was 
filled with passengers, stewards and stewardesses. Our or- 
chestra of four stringed instruments, whose men worked un- 
tiringly to give us the music that the larger orchestra ordi- 
narily furnished, was there and played Elger's "Land of 
Home and Glory." 

Then came the sermon, the story of Naman, the Leper, 
beautifully preached by an Episcopal clergyman, after we 
all sang: 

"O, God of love, O King of peace, 
Make wars throughout the world to cease; 
The wrath of sinful man restrain, 
Give peace, O God, give peace again!" 

The day's fog this evening disappeared, and the sun 
shone through and set in a burst of loveliness. Meanwhile 
we are hardly eight hundred miles from the Boston Lights 
and fast approaching the Land of the Free, and let us hope 
forever more, a land of security and peace. 

184 



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